A million yet to comply with MTD rules:
Only 6% of the 1.2m small business owners required to sign up to Making Tax Digital have done so, with just one week before the deadline. MTD rules mean firms with a turnover above the £85,000 VAT threshold must keep all records digitally and submit them to HMRC using approved software, but only 70,000 have so far complied. Alison Horner of MHA MacIntyre Hudson said: “Making Tax Digital has been on the cards for some time, but HMRC hasn’t always been effective in communicating how it will work, and many businesses have held off making preparations for too long. Panic as the deadline approaches could lead to serious pitfalls.” HMRC has said businesses will be penalised if they do not comply, although it will not issue filing or record keeping penalties where businesses are doing their best to adhere to the new rules.
Source: The Daily Telegraph (27/03/2019)
Government rules out delay to controversial ‘loan charge’ policy:
The Treasury has published its review of the tax avoidance crackdown which has slapped 50,000 contractors with huge bills. Its controversial loan charge policy, affecting self-employed people who took income as a loan from an offshore trust, comes into force next week and the government has ruled out the six month delay demanded by campaigners and MPs, even branding the tax schemes used by those affected as “calculated and persistent avoidance”. Barrister Keith Gordon, of Temple Tax Chambers, said HMRC had failed to properly challenge many of the schemes for 20 years, despite opening tens of thousands of enquiries, adding: “Where the report is silent is in relation to HMRC’s own failings.” The Mail reports on estimates that around 1,100 people who used loan schemes have been sent bills by HMRC which never arrived.
Source: The Daily Telegraph (27/02/2019 Financial Times (27/02/2019) The Times (27/02/2019) Daily Mail (27/02/2019)
Top earners pay a fifth of income tax and CGT
HMRC figures show that a fifth of all income and capital gains tax is paid by just 100,000 of Britain’s top earners. This group, which equates to 0.15% of the population, pays a total of £35.1bn in these taxes, with the 100 richest taxpayers paying an average of £18m each – with this just over 1% of the total income and capital gains tax take. Tommy Stubbington in the Sunday Times suggests the analysis will “fuel anxiety” that a tax-increasing Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn could drive an exodus of Britain’s super-rich. Alex Davies, chief executive of the investment platform Wealth Club, which obtained the data, said: “The well-off are essential to the country’s finances,” adding: “Any government needs to tread carefully if they think that squeezing these people for even more cash is the solution to our woes.”
Source: The Sunday Times (24/03/2019)
MPs call for moratorium on banks chasing SMEs
MP Kevin Hollinrake, who co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fair Business Banking, has written to the Financial Conduct Authority requesting a moratorium that would prevent banks and debt collectors from chasing small firms through the courts if they are waiting for complaints against lenders to be examined. The APPG estimates that around 60,000 entrepreneurs may have legitimate compensation claims against banks under a dispute resolution scheme run by UK Finance which is due to launch in September. The scheme will deal with cases where small-business bosses believe they are due compensation due to the way banks have treated them and will probe instances dating back to 2008.
Source: The Mail on Sunday (24/03/2019)
Cheer for UK economy
The Guardian’s monthly tracker of economic news has revealed that employment has reached the highest level of record and consumers are continuing to spend on the high street, despite Britain’s looming departure from the EU. Companies stepped up their hiring to add another 222,000 people to the workforce in the three months to January, according to the latest available figures. This took the overall number of people in work to a fresh record high of 32.7m. Despite the data, business groups said the political situation has developed into a full-blown national emergency, with the uncertainty over Brexit putting their investment plans in jeopardy.
Source: The Guardian (27/03/2019)
