Employment Allowance
You may shortly receive enquiries from clients about the new Employment Allowance. Up to 1.25 million businesses and charities will benefit from it - and around 450,000 will not have to pay any Class 1 NICs at all in 2014-15. …
Ruth Bulteel
HMRC Agent Research
In the last few days, you might have received a letter signed by Business Tax Director General, Jim Harra. As the letter explains, HMRC has commissioned independent research company TNS BMRB to carry out a survey for us. We want …
Agent Update Publication
Hello, I’m Andria Barber and I work in HMRC’s Agent Stakeholder team as the editor of ‘Agent Update’ which is published on our website every two months. It brings agent information together in one place, so that you can …
Tax helpline launched to support people affected by flooding
On 12 February HMRC launched a new telephone helpline for anyone affected by the recent flooding, to enable people to get fast, practical help and advice on a wide range of tax problems they may be facing. HMRC will also: …
Make sure your business is Cyber Streetwise
HMRC is supporting a new Government campaign that helps you to improve your performance online and keep important information safe. Cyber Streetwise offers essential tips and advice on a range of online security issues including software updates, passwords and customer …
Business Income Manual updated
Did you know that a major update to the Business Income Manual (BIM) was published on 10 December 2013. Over 2000 pages of guidance have been updated to reflect legislative changes, including Tax Law Rewrite, Simpler Income Tax rules and …
Tax return agents’ ‘copycat’ websites
With the 31 January deadline for filing SA returns fast approaching, the media has been asking us for our view on ‘copycat websites’, where companies offer to file returns for customers in return for large fees - sometimes up to …
The National Minimum Wage
In a recent statement in the Financial Times, the Prime Minister said, there would be much higher penalties for employers who fail to pay the National Minimum Wage (NMW). He said: “We are (also) clamping down on those who employ …
HMRC’s webinars
In my first blog I highlighted our recent survey about agents’ use of HMRC’s agent toolkits. This has now finished and I’m pleased to say we had a really good response rate. We’re analysing the results and I’ll let you know what we …
CIS repayments agent workshop
Last Thursday I attended the agent workshop on CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) Repayments. In addition to all the HMRC specialists, there was a good attendance from agents, some representing their professional rep bodies and some independent practitioners representing their local Working Together groups. They …
