Business and Other Briefings

HMRC: Plumbers, gas fitters & heating engineers are being targeted by the tax authorities in a clampdown on tradesmen failing to declare their earnings & pay tax. Under the tax plan, they and members of associated trades who have tax to pay which they have not yet told HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) about can come forward by 31 May 2011 to tell the department of their intention to disclose what they owe.
 
If they make a full disclosure, most face a low penalty rate of 10%, with a maximum of 20%.  They have until 31 August 2011 to make their disclosure & arrange for payment to be made.
Press release ~ Introduction to the Plumbers Tax Safe Plan (PTSP)
 
HMT: Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, announced last week how the facility for meeting high annual allowance (AA) charges from pension benefits will work in practice, including that the tax should be paid at the point the charge arises.
Press release and related links
 
HO: The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has recommended that 8 job titles be removed from the UK shortage occupation list (on top of 71 last month). This is to meet the government's objective of raising the skill level of Tier 2 to National Qualifications Framework level 4 and above (NQF4+).
Press release
 
EU News: Cloud Computing is one of the key enabling information technologies that can help European businesses – especially SMEs – to drastically reduce IT costs, help governments supply services at a lower cost to citizens and make computing much more energy efficient – See ‘EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc’ section for more information.
 
HMRC: Revenue & Customs Brief 08/11
The purpose of this is Brief is to explain some changes that are being made to the legislation relating to the lower rate of landfill tax.
 
HMRC:  Revenue & Customs Brief 07/11
This Brief announces that the rules on where ships are registered ('flagged') will apply at a company or group level in financial year 2011.
 
HMRCRevenue & Customs Brief 10/11
This Brief outlines the National Insurance implications for the entertainment industry following The First Tier Tribunal decision in the case of ITV Services Ltd (TC/2009/10166)
Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service