If an individual dies and for whatever reason executors or the Treasury Solicitor’s department are unable to track down beneficiaries, the unclaimed estate falls under the care of the Bona Vacantia and Government Legal Department. The Division publishes a list of unclaimed estates which have been recently referred, but not yet administered, and historic cases […]

Release from social distancing restrictions, in England, is deferred until 19 July 2021, which for most of us, means no change up to that date. We are still required to work from home when we can and maintain the other Step 3 social distancing provisions. However, there are a few additional concessions that will apply […]

COVID disruption has added a further layer to the business risk cake. Do you know how many of your customers are at risk of failure? It is estimated that between 20% and 30% of small businesses, and a sprinkling of larger concerns, will cease to trade as we start to emerge from COVID lockdown; if […]

HMRC have issued the following comments on their adoption of a risk-based penalty strategy for 2021-22. They said: Following HMRC’s review of the effectiveness of the risk-based approach to late filing PAYE and late payment penalties, we can confirm this approach will continue for the 2021 to 2022 tax year. This means that late filing […]

First, let’s define these terms. “informed” – a decision or judgement based on an understanding of the facts of the situation. “guesswork” the process or results of estimating or concluding something without sufficient information to be sure of being correct. And between these two extremes varying degrees of certainty will apply. From a business point […]

January and July are positive cash flow months for the UK Treasury as a number of significant taxes fall due for collection. Next month, July 2021, taxpayers may need to settle the following liabilities: 1 July 2021, companies with corporation tax due for the year end date 30 September 2020, will need to pay corporation […]

None of us are particularly thrilled to receive communications from HMRC, but fraudulent contacts, by email and other means, are becoming commonplace and innocent members of the public are being left out of pocket. According to HMRC, in the 12 months to 30 April 2021, they responded to more than 1,154,300 referrals of suspicious contact […]

The online portal for the new VAT payment scheme closes on 21 June 2021. Over half a million businesses deferred £34 billion in VAT payments due between March and June 2020 under the VAT Payment Deferral Scheme. Businesses had until 31 March 2021 to pay this deferred VAT or, if they could not afford to […]

Government continues to be optimistic about the outlook for employment. In a recent press release they said: “Furlough numbers have fallen to their lowest level this year, according to official statistics published 3 June, as the number of people relying on the scheme fell to 3.4 million.” And yet that is still 3.4 million who […]