Business and Other Briefings
HMT: The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban MP, has announced that 2 deregulatory amendments to the EU Prospectus Directive have been brought into effect a year early by the UK to help small businesses access equity finance more cheaply & effectively. The new requirements came into law on 31 July 2011, allowing businesses to take advantage of the measures from 1 August 2011.
Implementing the amendments a year early means that fewer small issuers are caught by the prospectus regime. SMEs will now be able to raise equity finance up to €5m (doubled from €2.5m) before a costly prospectus must be produced. They will also be able to target a larger pool of investors (up to 150 investors, from 100). Lifting a significant number of small companies outside of the obligations to issue a prospectus will make accessing equity finance more efficient and save UK SMEs around £12m per year.
HMRC: Plumbers, gas fitters & heating engineers have only one month left to tell HM Revenue and Customs about tax that they owe and to make arrangements to pay any interest and penalties due. They were offered a special tax plan to put right their tax affairs in March 2011. HMRC then began using information held on people working in the plumbing industry to clamp down on those who have chosen not to come forward and take advantage of the Plumbers Tax Safe Plan (PTSP).
BIS: A new pilot scheme, increasing the flexibility of the Patent Prosecution Highway will provide more support for UK businesses operating in the US & Japan. The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is an existing scheme that can speed up the process of getting patents granted in participating countries. It gives applicants who have received a favourable decision by a first examining office the opportunity to request an accelerated examination at another office. The ‘Mottainai’ pilot will run for an initial 1 year period until 14 July 2012.
A new R&C brief explaining changes to the treatment of products falling under CN code 3811 at 1 July 2012.
This brief clarifies HM Revenue & Customs' interpretation of two aspects of the Substantial Shareholding Exemption.
