A leading business group has warned that small businesses will suffer if the Chancellor raises taxes on small businesses in the Pre Budget Report.

Raising taxes for small businesses would ultimately cost the UK billions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of jobs, according to a new independent report for the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The report, by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), argues that increasing the burden of taxation on the country’s small businesses – which make up 99 per cent of all UK businesses – would plunge the economy further into debt and take its … Continue Reading

If you’re planning on filing your 2008/09 tax return on paper this year, you must get it to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by 31st October. Leave it too late, and you could end up with a £100 late-filing penalty.

If you are concerned you may miss the paper deadline, you can choose to switch to online filing.

The online service has a number of benefits:

• online returns don’t have to be filed until 31st January, so you get three months longer to file;
• your tax is calculated automatically;
• you get an immediate online acknowledgement once you’ve filed;
• it’s processed faster, so any money … Continue Reading
  

A record 83,000 scam emails offering fake tax refunds were reported in September, according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

An unprecedented 10,000 reports of the fraud, known as ‘phishing’, were made to HMRC on one day alone. The fraudulent email tells the recipient they are due a tax refund and then asks for bank account or credit card details. Anyone who gives these details to the fraudsters risks finding their bank accounts cleared of funds or their credit cards spent to the limit. In some cases, the victim’s details are sold on to other criminal gangs.

John Harrison, Head of HMRC … Continue Reading

A new study from Lloyds TSB Commercial suggests that British businesses are still reeling from the effects of recession and are as such ill-prepared to face a return to economic growth.

The research reveals that a third of firms (31%) have not taken any steps whatsoever to prepare their business for the upturn, while 36% don’t believe they need to do anything to ensure their business is ready to benefit as the recovery starts to gain momentum.

Amongst the 31% of firms that have not taken action to prepare for a recovery, 17% stated they hadn’t thought about it. However, 43% recognised … Continue Reading

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%.

The Committee also voted to continue with its programme of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing, totalling £175 billion financed by the issuance of central bank reserves.

The Committee expects the announced programme to take another month to complete, the scale of which will be kept under review.

Commenting on today’s decision, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:

“Though we are not surprised by the MPC’s decision to keep Bank Rate at 0.5%, we are … Continue Reading

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has called on the Government to put a stop to all new business regulation and simplify red tape if it is to seriously tackle rising unemployment.

The FSB believes that a freeze on new business regulation would create more than 300,000 jobs, and provide the economy with a second economic stimulus.

A survey of FSB members showed that nearly one in three businesses (27%) that wanted to expand said they were too scared to do so, because they were put off by complicated regulation. Of those businesses planning to down-size or close, 50% said their decision … Continue Reading

HMRC has confirmed that its offshore disclosure scheme will go online from 1 October, making it easier to settle unpaid offshore tax on beneficial terms.The New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO) enables those with unpaid taxes arising from offshore accounts or assets, to disclose them and settle any tax liabilities at a guaranteed fixed penalty rate that for most people will be 10%.

Dave Hartnett, HMRC Permanent Secretary for Tax, said:

“We want to make it as easy as possible to come forward, make a full disclosure and benefit from the limited penalty. The NDO is already a straightforward process and our new web … Continue Reading