Lloyds Banking Group recently announced it was to cut jobs, a move that will affect 1,150 umbrella company and limited company IT contractors in the UK.
HMRC have launched a new consultation that could result in major changes on the horizon for PAYE. The PAYE business processes were introduced in 1944 and have not changed in the following 66 years.
Employers may be relieved to pass over employee tax calculations to HMRC but experts are not convinced that a centralised tax system will work efficiently in the UK.
The BBC was recently told by HMRC whistleblowers that the Revenue has been instructed not to chase a lot of underpayment cases that are over two years old and which could be open to a legal challenge; a claim that has been strongly denied by an HMRC spokesman.
It was recently reported that many people are not prepared for the day to day financial changes that take place on retirement and one reason for this could be that we simply do not believe that 65 is old.
Due to recently discovered errors, HMRC has sent out its first round of approximately 45,000 letters to taxpayers, potentially including umbrella company contractors, informing them that their taxes were wrong. The total number of letters sent out should top 6 million by the end of this year.
Umbrella company contractors should consider themselves lucky not to have to undergo the sort of company training that many PAYE employees undergo, which often has no underlying purpose.
The fiasco surrounding HMRC’s attempt to introduce a new system to cope with PAYE codes earlier this year continues with news that PAYE processing errors resulted in a 15.7% increase in underpayments and a 148% increase in overpayments.
Vince Cable has pledged to review the incoming agency workers directive but some employers are warning him not to jeopardise a deal that was previously agreed with the unions.
Both the BCC and the CBI have hit out at the coalition’s proposal to abolish the default retirement age from April 2011. The BCC’s director of policy, Adam Marshall, says this will restrict the ability of businesses to manage their workforce.