A man has been jailed for 12 months for evading £91,000 of income tax and national insurance during ten years of trading as a self-employed plumber David Williams, 53, was sentenced on 27 March at Wolverhampton Crown Court. Mr Williams, of Rowley Regis, Sandwell, admitted charges of evasion of income tax, contrary to the Taxes… Read more…

Royal Mail has announced steep rises in the prices of stamps from 30 April 2012. The price of a first class stamp for a standard letter will rise from 46p to 60p and the cost of a second class stamp for a standard letter will rise from 36p to 50p. The announcement, on 27 March,… Read more…

The government has launched a consultation on the new above the line (ATL) research and development (R&D) tax credit for larger companies, to help shape the way it should work when it is introduced in April 2013. The new credit was originally announced by the government in the autumn of 2011 and flagged up by… Read more…

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Consumers have been urged to steer clear of offers that claim to be able to provide loans or release tax-free cash from people’s pension pots before they reach the age of 55. The Pensions Regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued the warning on 25 February after detected an… Read more…

An extra £1 billion has been set aside by the government to help businesses to grow and create new jobs. The funding, part of the Regional Growth Fund, takes the total fund to £2.4 billion. It will be available to businesses and public/private partnerships seeking to create new jobs and boost their local economies. Deputy… Read more…

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced a fresh approach to its business records checks (BRC) programme in 2012, following a review of a pilot for the scheme. The review, which involved trade and professional bodies’ representatives, found that it was effective in improving record-keeping practices in smaller businesses but recommended that the checks were… Read more…

Family business owners have been reassured that the government has no plans to remove a valuable inheritance tax relief. A recent report by the London School of Economics, which had called for the removal of business property relief (BPR) for inheritance tax, prompted the Institute for Family Business (IFB) to meet Exchequer Secretary David Gauke.… Read more…

Four new lenders have been accredited to offer loans to small businesses under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme, the government has announced. The EFG provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that lack the collateral or credit history to secure a normal bank loan. The four new lenders, announced on 16 February, are: Metro Bank… Read more…

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is to launch 30 new taskforces to crack down on tax dodgers in 2012-13. The taskforces will target specific business sectors in specific locations where there is evidence of tax evasion, with likely targets including: the clothing industry, including imports and wholesale the motor trade indoor and outdoor markets. The… Read more…