Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Forecast 2026 – widely referred to as the Spring Statement – in the House of Commons on 3 March. In a deliberately low-key address, she updated MPs on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) latest economic projections without introducing any new tax rises, spending commitments or policy shifts. For […]
Those working in the service sector, including nurses, hairdressers, construction workers and people working in retail and food sectors, may be able to claim expense rebates. HMRC is encouraging staff who work in these types of roles and are paid through Pay As You Earn, to investigate whether they can claim back some of their […]
Read articleHMRC has announced that Class 1A National Insurance contribution (NIC) employer charges on termination payments of more than £30,000 and on sporting testimonials of more than the £100,000 lifetime exemption are now due to come into effect in April 2020. This provision was expected to be included with the other changes to the taxation of […]
Read articleAdvice on unpaid work trials has been added to HMRC’s guidance on calculating the National Minimum Wage (NMW). Work trials are sometimes offered for legitimate reasons as part of a recruitment process. However, some employers may use unpaid work periods to obtain work or services that should be paid. This is often a grey area because there […]
Read articleThe government has confirmed the auto-enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings bands for 2019/20, following its annual review. The auto-enrolment earnings trigger determines who is eligible to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension by their employer in terms of how much they earn. The qualifying earnings band is in place in respect of which contributions […]
Read articleEmployers cannot dismiss employees who are receiving contractual long-term disability benefits for incapability due to an implied term, found the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). In the case of Awan v ICTS, Mr Awan worked as a security agent for American Airlines at Heathrow Airport. As part of his contract he was entitled to an insured long-term […]
Read articleHMRC has “failed to adequately support” small businesses with the introduction of Making Tax Digital for VAT, and recommends that the government’s introduction of the digital service be delayed by at least one year. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee has published a damning report on HMRC’s Making Tax Digital for Business programme and […]
Read articleProposals to give people greater access to their pensions information have been unveiled by the government. New free, user-friendly ‘pensions dashboards’ would allow people to access their information from most pension schemes in one place online for the first time. The aim is to give people accurate, easy to understand, secure information about their pensions. […]
Read articleThe case of King v Sash Windows has been settled following several years of debate over the rights of workers to recover holiday pay where they were wrongly treated as being ‘self-employed’. In December last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that workers who have not taken paid leave because they were […]
Read articleSome pension savers have been incorrectly receiving tax relief twice on their contributions or not receiving relief at all, HMRC has admitted. In a joint article written by HMRC and The Pensions Regulator (TPR), the two organisations revealed that they were aware of issues with giving tax relief to scheme members and attributed the problem to an […]
Read articleThis newsletter is published by HMRC’s Pension Schemes Services to update stakeholders on the latest news for pension schemes. Pension Schemes Newsletter 105 includes articles on: Of particular interest in this newsletter is the commentary on pensions tax relief. As reported by the Payroll Centre, there have been difficulties around pensions tax relief with some individuals receiving […]
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