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August 2011 - E-NEWS
Please browse through this month’s articles using the links below and contact us if any issues or questions arise.
- Non-dom tax to see reforms
- Retail rules to be relaxed in Red Tape Challenge victory
- Businesses offered advice on reducing risk abroad
- Students urged to save on summer job tax
The Treasury has published a consultation paper on reforming the tax system as it applies to non-domiciled residents. The Government has also set out another consultation on its plans for a statutory residence test (SRT).
The aim of the non-dom consultation, the Government said, is to encourage individuals to invest in the UK while also ensuring a fair tax contribution. Details include increasing the existing £30,000 annual charge to £50,000 for non-domiciles who claim the remittance basis in a tax year and who have been UK resident in 12 or more of the 14 years prior to the year of claim; allowing non-domiciles to bring overseas income and capital gains to the UK tax-free for the purpose of commercial investment in UK businesses; and simplifying the way in which some aspects of the current rules work.
Retail rules to be relaxed in Red Tape Challenge victory
Retailers’ lives are set to be made easier after the government said more than 160 regulations would be simplified or scrapped in the first changes to be introduced through its Red Tape Challenge.
The first wave of reforms, announced by Business Secretary Vince Cable on 28 July, is set to benefit shops and consumers. Comments from the public and businesses have led to proposals including:
- streamlining more than a dozen pieces of consumer rights law with a single new piece of legislation
- simplifying the poisons licensing system for low risk products such as fly spray and toilet cleaner and removing the requirement on retailers to notify TV Licensing about TV sales
- removing the need for a shop selling liqueur chocolates to have an alcohol licence and lowering the age for buying Christmas crackers
- scrapping redundant legislation, such as the wartime Trading with the Enemy Act and rules around the safety of pencils, prams and hood cords, where consumers are already protected by other legislation.
Dr Cable said: “We have to roll back the number of rules and regulations that our businesses have to deal with if we are to create the right conditions for sustainable economic growth.
“We are making real progress but this is just the start. We still need the help of business and the public to make the rest of the Red Tape Challenge a success and free businesses to compete, create jobs and unleash a private sector-led recovery.”
Minister for Business and Enterprise Mark Prisk said: “As a result of the thousands of comments we received, and a robust challenge process inside Whitehall, we are now proposing to simplify, improve or abolish two-thirds of the retail regulations that we asked the public to comment on, cutting back the bureaucracy that our retailers face.
“These moves will help reduce costs, especially for small retailers, by cutting down the number of forms they have to fill in and overlapping and confusing laws they have to get to grips with. “
The Red Tape Challenge was launched on 7 April as part of the government’s drive to do away with badly designed or badly thought-out regulations that create an unnecessary burden on the commercial sector.
LINK: Red Tape Challenge
Businesses offered advice on reducing risk abroad
A new service has been launched to help UK companies learn about the security and business risks in 90 markets when working abroad.
The Overseas Business Risk service is particularly aimed at giving SMEs the information they need to help them do business abroad safely and successfully.
Overseas Business Risk, launched on 12 July, is run jointly by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and is accessible through the UKTI website.
Profiles available for 90 markets all over the world will cover aspects like the risk of cyber crime, corruption, bribery and theft of intellectual property. It will also provide, in one place, links to authoritative information from across government.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “The success of British firms in markets overseas is essential to our nation’s economic recovery and we want to encourage more businesses to export.
“Many opportunities exist in markets overseas, but we know that risks can accompany opportunity. Companies need support to address such risks, including those relating to corruption, security and rapidly growing threats such as cyber crime.
“Our new Overseas Business Risk service aims to help business manage these risks by providing information on over 90 markets.”
The service forms part of the FCO Charter for Business, which helps business to identify and pursue new opportunities while managing potential pitfalls.
LINK: Overseas Business Risk service
Students urged to save on summer job tax
Students are being reminded that they may not have to pay any tax on the money they make from summer jobs.
Many college and university students take on temporary work over the summer to earn extra cash but HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) says that they may not know that – provided their total earnings for the tax year are less than the personal allowance of £7,475 – they will not have to pay any tax on the money they make.
To ensure their employers do not deduct tax they do not need to pay, students must fill in a form P38(S), which they can download from the HMRC website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/p38s.pdf.
Students who fail to fill in the form can reclaim any tax paid by sending HMRC a form P50, available at www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/p50.pdf.
Stephen Banyard, director general of personal tax at HMRC said: “We don’t want students to pay tax when they don’t owe any, so we’re encouraging them to fill in a P38(S) and return it to their employer. That way they can keep all the money they’re earning for student life’s essentials.”
LINK: Student tax advice
HWB
Chartered Accountants, Highland House, Mayflower Close, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh,
Hampshire, SO53 4AR.
