Previously, Smartphones were only to be tax exempt, if they were provided by the employer solely for business use. However, the exemption has now been extended, although HMRC have said the new tax exemption only applies to devices primarily designed for voice communication.
The new guidelines issued by HMRC also state that mobile devices which provide Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) – a technology for making free or cheap calls over the internet will not qualify for the exemption, meaning tablets and other devices will remain subject to the old tax rules.
One economist has said on the new guidelines: “HMRC's advice is that a Smartphone is a mobile phone, despite its extra capability. This change is good news for employees as it means there's no tax or NIC to pay on their first work mobile phone, regardless of how much the employee uses it privately."
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( 3 / 5 )According to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), growth amongst the world’s leading nations fell sharply to just 0.1 percent in the final three months of 2011.
The think-tank estimated the level of output for the OECD region, based on each country’s personal estimate; with the data reflecting the mounting fears that the Euro zone was spinning out of control; although the results show that there is a wide divergence of performance within the area.
Early signs that the US will lead the world back to economic health are evident in the 0.7 percent growth it posted in the final quarter of 2011; whilst Europe pulled the OECD down, with the European Union as a whole contracting by 0.3 percent.
The UK and Germany both contracted by 0.2 percent, whilst Italy had the biggest fall in economic growth, contracting by 0.7 percent, followed by Japan who contracted by 0.6 percent.
Overall the 0.1 percent growth reported is a sharp decline from the 0.6 percent in the previous three months and the lowest since the area came out of recession in 2009.
For more information, please visit www.bkl.co.uk
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( 5 / 1 )Research released over the weekend suggests that the amount paid out by HM Revenue & Customs in corporation tax refunds has almost doubled to £9bn over five years.
In five years, up to March 2010, the total amount of repaid tax jumped ninety-one percent, from £4.7 billion to £9 billion; with the average amount paid out for each claim rose 43pc in the year to March 31 2010, to £25,259 from £17,683.
The research also suggested that HMRC were getting slower at processing refunds as job cuts within the department take affect.
One of the economists behind the research, said: “There has been a huge increase in the amount of corporation tax that has been refunded to companies, as losses accumulated during the recession.
“In the recent economic climate, UK businesses are likely to have incurred losses that can be offset against earlier profits, which is why they might be eligible for repayments.
“Claims are now typically taking two or three months to process. Even extreme delays of two years are no longer seen as uncommon, but often HMRC wait until nine months after the year end to repay excess installments.”
For more information, please visit www.bkl.co.uk
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( 3.2 / 18 )With the European Commission on the verge of a radical shake-up of the audit profession, the House of Lords have voiced concerns that it doesn’t go far enough and are calling for more layers of regulation.
Jonathan Faull, the director general for the internal market and services division of the European Commission, was brought in for questioning before the parliamentary economic affairs committee, to find out what the European proposals meant – and why they didn’t go far enough on some issues.
During the meeting, the committee voiced their concerns that the European Commission had made a "half-hearted" approach in its proposals to enforce a direct line of communication between auditors and regulators and was "puzzled" it did not include statutory obligation for regulators and bank auditors to share concerns with each other.
Mr. Faull told the committee that the European parliament, which is about to debate the proposals, would consider the points made. But the committee pushed harder, arguing proposals were more likely to be "watered down" in European parliament than strengthened; but also advised that the commission does not have the power to alter the market - again this is something for competition authorities to look at, which he understood the UK was already undertaking.
The director general also seemed to imply that two biggest audit reform issues for the UK, which were mentioned in the meeting, - better communication between regulators and auditors in financial service companies; and breaking the Big Four monopoly - would be left to the UK authorities to deal with.
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( 2.9 / 29 )The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is warning accountants to take note of the taxman’s new late filing penalties that are set to be introduced.
From tomorrow, Friday February 17th 2012, HMRC are set to fine taxpayers that fail to file their 2010/2011 tax returns on time – with fines being issued up to £1,6000.
Although 86% of the 10.3 million self-assessment taxpayers filed their returns by the January deadline last year, the HMRC have estimated that last year nearly £2 billion was at stake from taxpayers who missed the January 31st deadline.
Of the 14% that were late in filing, it is reported that 11% - just over 1 million people, still hadn’t filed their returns six months later; which is why the new fines have been introduced.
The new penalties for missing the tax deadline are as follows:
• £100 fine for missing the deadline – which was extended to February 3rd this year
• £10 a day for every day the self-assessment tax return hasn’t been received by HMRC, from 1 May for 90 days a maximum of £900
• £300 on 1 August or 5% of tax due - whichever is more costly and the same penalty of £300 or 5% tax on 1 February 2013.
With the fines no longer being capped at tax owed, taxpayers could find themselves facing fines of up to £1,600 even if they owe nothing or are due a refund from HMRC.
For more information, please visit www.bkl.co.uk
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