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Business and Other Briefings
VOA: Over the coming weeks, business owners will be receiving correspondence from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) advising them to check the details of their property valuation to ensure they’re correct and directing them to a newly-created website.
The website is designed to guide busy business owners all the way through, giving them everything they need to check the details and feel confident that their valuation is fair & accurate. It is essential to check that the property valuation is correct, as business rates bills are calculated, based on these figures. To help businesses get an advance indication of how their new valuation translates into what they will pay, a rates bill ‘indicator’ has been set up at www.businesslink.gov.uk/estimatemyrates.
By logging on to www.voa.gov.uk/2010 ratepayers will be able to compare their details with other similar properties and, where necessary, contact VOA for assistance. The site offers lots of straightforward help and even short videos on key topics, designed to explain the valuation process.
FSA: The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced wide-ranging action to help investors who received unsuitable advice or misleading promotional material when they bought a Lehman-backed structured product, as well as measures to address issues in the wider structured products market.
The FSA found significant advice failings on Lehman-backed products in most of the financial advice firms sampled, as well as serious deficiencies in the marketing literature provided by a number of the plan managers selling these products.
As a result, the FSA is taking direct action to address the detriment this has caused for investors with Lehman-backed products and robust steps to ensure all future structured products investors are treated fairly, including:
Lehman-backed structured products.
Press release ~ Quality of advice on structured investment products ~ Assessment template ~ Assessment guidance ~ Review of marketing material used by plan managers ~ Expectations of plan managers when designing & marketing structured products ~ Factsheet for structured product investors ~ NDF Administration Limited (NDFA) and Defined Returns Limited (DRL) ~ Arc Capital and Income plc (ACI) ~ Wider Implications
HMT: Michael Foot has published his independent review of British offshore financial centres. He was asked by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to conduct a review of the long-term opportunities & challenges facing the British Crown Dependencies (CDs) and Overseas Territories (OTs) as financial centres.
The report covers a number of important areas that impact on the future sustainability of these jurisdictions and sets out a series of robust & sensible standards that Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories will be expected to meet.
This Revenue & Customs Brief 67/09 confirms HMRC policy on the treatment of service charges following the European Court of Justice judgment in 'RLRE Tellmer' (C-572/07).
