Welcome to our monthly newswire...

Our aim is to keep you up to date with ideas and information that will help you gain the best possible advantages in working with us. This newswire will be sent regularly to help achieve this aim, and we hope you enjoy reading them.

We operate a responsible email policy at CW Fellowes, so if you do not wish to receive further copies of this newswire, click here to unsubscribe.

Key Dates

GHG Premiership Rugby Clubs Charity Cycle Challenge

He will be joined by 2 friends and Damian Carter of Lloyds TSB for the 700 mile trip. A support vehicle is being supplied by Abacus Car & Van Hire.

Bruce will be raising funds for Wessex Cancer Trust and Rose Road Association and hopes to raise £20,000 in recognition of the 20 years of fundraising.  The cycle challenge major sponsor is The Graham High Group Limited who are the current proud sponsors of London Irish and previous sponsors of Tottonians.

Bruce has also been sponsored for each cycle leg from club to club but would like to reach his target of £20,0000.  If you would like to help Bruce please  forward a cheque made payable to CW Fellowes Charity Account unless you would prefer your donation to be to one of the designated charities.  If so, please forward a cheque payable to Wessex Cancer Trust or The Rose Road Association or log on to the just giving site below for your chosen charity.

For further information please contact either Bruce Elkins or Sarah Martin on 023 8024 7070 or email baelkins@cwfellowes.com or sarahm@cwfellowes.com.

Bruce and Damian thank you for your support.

Kamikaze Challenge

PAYE in the Spotlight

The consultation is designed to explore whether there are alternative ways of collecting information that would reduce costs for employers and HMRC and to start a discussion about the collection of information on PAYE at the time employers pay individuals – known as Real Time Information – rather than once a year, and how this could simplify processes.

HMRC believes that Real Time Information would make it easier for people to pay the right tax after a change of job and possibly remove the need for the P45/P46 procedure. It could also offer the prospect of simplifying the PAYE end of year reconciliation process for employers, HMRC and individuals.

In the tax year 2009-2010, PAYE brought in £249 billion in tax and national insurance contributions and £1.1 billion in student loan repayments. It costs HMRC less than 1p for each pound of tax collected.

The consultation will run until 23 September 2010 and if responses are positive, it is likely that a second stage of consultation will begin in the autumn.

LINKS:  Consultation

HMRC Under Fire over Income Tax Cases Backlog

HMRC improved its performance in collecting debt, with amounts due from taxpayers but not yet paid decreasing by £1.6 billion to £26.1 billion but progress has been slow in reducing the backlog of cases of potentially overpaid or underpaid tax from 2007-08 and earlier.

At 31 March 2010, 18.2 million cases were awaiting action. HMRC’s early analysis suggests that around half of these are likely to involve an over or underpayment of tax and these may lead to repayments and recoveries of the order of an estimated £3 billion and £1.4 billion respectively.

At 31 March 2010, tax credits debt had increased to £4.5 billion (£4.4 billion at 31 March 2009), partly because claimants face financial difficulties and cannot pay and partly because HMRC has prioritised collecting higher value tax debts.

Amyas Morse said: "The Department has not made enough progress in reducing the backlog of 18.2 million income tax cases where there is potentially overpaid or underpaid tax. It also needs to improve its collection rate for tax credits debt, which is substantially lower than that for tax debts.”

He said that HMRC’s administration of tax in 2009-2010 had been influenced by the recession, pressure on HMRC to streamline processes and the effectiveness of its information systems. These needed to be developed so they improve HMRC’s ability to monitor and assess the targeting and performance of debt collection campaigns and to design future interventions in the areas of greatest risk.

LINKS:  Full report

Online VAT Deadline Looming

Businesses need to act now if they have not already registered for online filing of VAT returns. Under new rules, existing VAT-registered businesses with annual turnovers of £100,000 or more (excluding VAT), and any businesses that registered for VAT from 1 April 2010 must now file their VAT returns online and pay their VAT electronically.

The vast majority of traders file their VAT returns quarterly, and the first quarterly returns affected by the changes are those covering April -June 2010, which – for most online filing customers – must be filed online by 7 August.

Stephen Banyard, Director of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) Business Customer Unit, said: “The vast majority of customers affected by the new arrangements have already enrolled for HMRC’s VAT Online service, and many have also filed their first returns online.

“However, if you’re a VAT-registered trader who’s affected by these changes, and you haven’t yet signed up, you need to take action now.”

LINKS

Sign up for the VAT Online service at: www.online.hmrc.gov.uk/registration.htm
More information on the registration process: www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/vat-online/index.htm.

Tax Set To Be Made Simpler

Drawing on external expertise from the tax and legal professions, the OTS will carry out two initial reviews over the coming year, focusing on tax reliefs and small business tax simplification, including IR35.

It will publish its initial findings on their work on reliefs in the late autumn and on small business tax by the 2011 Budget.

Over the past decade, the tax code doubled to more than 11,000 pages. Chair of the OTS, the Right Honourable Michael Jack, said: “Entrepreneurship should never be stifled because of an overly complex tax system.

“Simplification in a complex world is a real challenge but it’s one that has to be addressed if the tax system is not to hinder the economy’s ability to grow.”

LINKS: Office of Tax Simplification

Get Ready For New Equality Act

Time is ticking away for businesses to review their policies and practices to make sure they are in line with the new Equality Act. Most of the Equality Act will become law on 1 October 2010, bringing together and replacing previous discrimination legislation. It covers a range of groups that have protected characteristics relating to: age disability gender reassignment race religion or belief sex sexual orientation marriage and civil partnership pregnancy and maternity

The new Act is designed to streamline existing equality law and contains elements that remain unchanged from previous legislation, have been amended or extended or introduced for the first time. Changes have been made in the following areas:

• third party harassment: employers are potentially liable if staff are harassed by people they don't employ, such as external suppliers or customers
• pre-employment health checks: with some exceptions, from October employers should no longer send out pre-health questionnaires with employment application packs
• employment tribunal recommendations: employment tribunals can require employers found guilty of discrimination to take steps to change their policies and practices to prevent further discrimination
• pay secrecy: the Equality Act will make a clause in contracts requiring employees to keep pay secret unenforceable. Employers can still require employees to keep pay rates confidential from others outside the workplace, such as competitors.

In the light of these changes, businesses may need to review and change some policies and practices.

LINKS: Equalities Act summary guides and Acas guide

Late Returns Grace Period To End

Introduced in 1995, ESC B46 established the principle that penalties would not be charged when employers and contractors submitting tax returns and CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) forms had taken “all reasonable steps” to file their returns on time, but were not able to do so due to unforeseen circumstances such as postal delays.

With the advent of online filing, which is required for P35s and P14s and will become mandatory for Corporation Tax returns from 1 April, HMRC considers the concession redundant because the delays it was intended to address will no longer happen. Returns must therefore reach the department by their due date or incur a late filing penalty of £100.

Confirming the new penalty regime, HMRC said: “Any customers filing a return late will, as now, be able to request us to remove any penalty, if they believe they had a reasonable excuse for the delay in filing. We will consider every case on its own merits. Customers can also appeal against the penalty to a tribunal.”

LINK: HMRC briefing

Guide Aims To Make Managing Employee Performance Easier

New guidance is now available for businesses to help them manage the performance of their workforce more effectively. With statistics showing that poor performance was raised as an issue in nine out of ten disciplinary hearings*, employment service Acas had produced the How to manage performance guide.

It provides advice on how businesses can set objectives with their employees, including drawing up an effective personal development plan, and is designed to help businesses build engaged, productive teams, improve communication and give employees a clear understanding of where they fit into the business and the skills and competencies needed to fill their role.

John Taylor, Acas chief executive says: “The new guidance from Acas illustrates that managing performance is central to the relationship between managers and employees as well as key to maintaining a productive workplace.

“It also gives employers a chance to monitor performance, develop skills and give employees the chance to express themselves.”

* IRS/XpertHR benchmarking research

LINK: Acas guide

Revised Guidance On ‘Fit And Proper’ Persons

The Finance Act 2010 introduced a new definition for tax purposes of charities and other organisations entitled to UK charity tax reliefs, which includes a requirement that to be a charity, an organisation must satisfy the “management condition”.

The new definition applies to Gift Aid with effect from 1 April 2010 and is due to be extended to other charity tax reliefs later this year. It follows that this guidance applies at present only to charities claiming repayments of tax under Gift Aid.

For a charity to satisfy the management condition, its managers must be fit and proper persons. The legislation does not define “fit and proper” and the guidance sets out how HMRC applies this test to those who have the general control and management of the administration of the charity.

HMRC assumes that all people appointed by charities are fit and proper persons unless they hold information to show otherwise. Provided charities take appropriate steps in appointing staff, then they may assume that they meet the management condition at all times unless, exceptionally, they are challenged by HMRC.

However, where HMRC finds a manager of a charity is not a fit and proper person, a charity will not necessarily lose entitlement to the charity tax relief as HMRC can treat a charity as having met the management condition in certain circumstances.

LINKS: HMRC guidance

HMRC Issues New Security Alerts

HM Revenue & Customs has issued a new security warning over an email currently in circulation. The email, which comes from “HMRC Online services - test@test.com” states that the recipient has one new ALERT message and should log into their Online Account to read the message.

The email contains a link to a fraudulent website that requests the disclosure of personal account information and password.

HMRC stresses that it has not issued the email and asks anyone receiving a copy to forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

HMRC has also said that it is aware of emails being issued to advertise a service where the sender applies for a rebate of National Insurance on the customer’s behalf, usually for a fee.

HMRC is stressing that these companies are not affiliated with HMRC in any way.

LINKS: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm