People trading on the internet who haven’t paid all the tax they owe are being invited to come forward and pay up under a new HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) campaign. The e-Markets Disclosure Facility will allow online marketplace traders to pay the tax they owe and benefit from lower penalties, rather than waiting for… Read more…

A new online toolkit has been launched to give first-time employers a step-by-step guide to their obligations when taking on a member of staff. Taking on an Employee, which is available on the Business Link website, takes employers through the process of hiring their first member of staff and explains their legal responsibilities on issues… Read more…

A Supreme Court ruling in a key direct age discrimination case is a reminder to employers that a worker’s age should not be “shorthand” on which to base their ability to do their job, says the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). In the ruling, delivered on 25 April, the court dismissed an appeal by… Read more…

Employment relations specialist Acas has launched a new guide to tackle what it describes as the last taboo in business – mental illness at work. According to the Centre for Mental Health charity, a total of 91 million work days are lost to mental ill health every year although the lost days account for only… Read more…

Office workers being banned from putting up Christmas decorations and trapeze artists being told to wear hard hats are among a top ten of myths published as part of the launch of a new service to help curb the worst examples of health and safety misuse. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will run the… Read more…

The government has announced that automatic pension enrolment rates are to be aligned with tax and national insurance thresholds, to streamline administration for businesses. In October, the largest employers will be the first to start automatically enrolling employees into qualifying workplace pension schemes and making contributions to the schemes, to which employees who opt to… Read more…

Employers are being urged to plan ahead for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holiday in June. To mark the occasion, the last bank holiday in May has been moved to Monday, 4 June 2012 and there will be an extra bank holiday on Tuesday, 5 June. Now Acas has reminded employers to plan ahead to avoid… Read more…

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has delayed the introduction of a scheme under which it would recover its costs from businesses that break health and safety laws. The HSE said on 15 March that the Fee for Intervention (FFI) cost recovery scheme would not now start in April 2012, as originally planned. It said… Read more…

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…