HMRC investigation secures extra £millions from PayPal
We all know that Paypal is a huge global organisation. So why did they only paying £159,000 UK tax in the 2015-16 tax year? HMRC wanted to know the answer to this question and launched [...]
October 2018
What does the ‘fuel duty freeze’ mean for you?
One of the many headlines from the recent Conservative Party Conference is Theresa May’s announcement that the freeze on fuel duty will continue. There had been recent speculation that a raise in fuel duty was [...]
September 2018
Do you think a Tourism Tax is a good idea?
Next week Edinburgh Councillors will vote on whether to take forward a proposal to introduce a ‘transient visitor levy’ (TVL) to the public consultation stage. Supporters of the ‘tourism tax’ predict that it would bring [...]
How the different Scottish Income Tax rates affects the British military
As Scotland has different income tax rates to the rest of the UK, military personnel on the same salary are paying a different amount of tax depending on where they live. For many of those [...]
Are you eligible for the Marriage Allowance tax break?
HMRC has recently said that there are over a million couples in civil partnerships and marriages missing out on their Marriage Allowance. This is simply because they have not filled in the application for this [...]
Are HMRC’s different interest rates fair?
Should late taxpayers pay more interest on their payments than HMRC does on tax rebates? This interesting question has strong views on both sides, with the ACCA (a professional body for accountants) up in arms [...]
Football referees score against HMRC
HMRC brought a case against 60 ‘level 1 national group’ football referees, saying that their employment status had been wrongly classified. The referees had been paying National Insurance Contributions (NICs) as self employed contractors. The [...]
Would the UK economy be stronger if some tax laws were changed?
This is the question being answered by a report from the Commission on Economic Justice. Their report has 72 recommendations to achieve a fairer and stronger UK economy. Some of them involve changes to the [...]
August 2018
HMRC tax avoidance tip-offs double in one year
In 2016-17 there were 20,200 calls made to HMRC’s tip off hotline. This phoneline is specifically for members of the public to report those they suspect of not paying their tax or of committing fraud. [...]
What does the government’s ‘budget surplus’ mean to me?
The Office of National Statistics published their ‘Statistical bulletin: Public sector finances, UK: July 2018. How the relationship between UK public sector monthly income and expenditure leads to changes in deficit and debt.’ Basically, balancing [...]