New research from internet service provider, Beaming, has revealed that in 2018 UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were affected by cybercrime to the tune of £17.4 billion. Business cybercrime is the flavour of the month for fraudsters, with hacking, phishing and data breaches affecting millions of UK companies and causing billions of pounds of…
Lorraine Kelly has won an appeal against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) at a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) following a £1.2 million demand for unpaid income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs). HMRC claimed that Lorraine Kelly should have been working inside the rules of IR35 at ITV Breakfast Ltd during the relevant period. This…
VAT is arguably one of the most confusing areas of tax – which is why many business owners will run into complications when it comes to keeping on top of their VAT requirements and responsibilities. In the UK, businesses can only charge their customers VAT if their business has been registered for VAT purposes with…
The next 12 months will see a number of new changes to payroll policy that could have an impact on a wide range of businesses. To give an overview of how businesses could be affected by these changes, below are some of the highlights that employers will need to prepare for. Private Sector IR35 From…
During the last Budget, the Government announced new conditions to entrepreneurs’ relief that would take immediate effect to change the definition of a “personal company” for shareholders who claim entrepreneurs’ relief. By introducing these changes, they hope to restrict shareholders relief to those with a genuine material stake of at least five per cent in…
A new study into preparations for Making Tax Digital amongst businesses has found that only 57 per cent of firms are ready to comply with the new regime by 1 April 2019. Despite the various delays and changes to the Government’s new digital tax system, businesses have had several years to prepare themselves for this…
The Small Business Commissioner, Paul Uppal, has recommended a new “traffic light” system that will warn smaller firms which businesses have a consistent record of late payment and those most likely to request longer payment terms. It is thought that around £2.5 billion is lost annually within the economy due to late payments and they…
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has dropped its insistence that all company directors must submit tax returns following a series of tribunal rulings. For several years, HMRC has advised in its guidance on the gov.uk website that company directors should register for Self-Assessment and this has also been part of online tools designed to help…
The next increase in Automatic Enrolment (AE) pension contributions for both employees and employers will take place from 6 April 2019. The minimum employer contribution will increase from two per cent to three per cent, while the employee contribution will rise from three per cent to five per cent – taking the total minimum contribution…
