Tax

Inside Tax

Tax debacle could cost you £100 each month

Monday, 6 September 2010

More than 45,000 people will this week receive letters from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to give them warning that their employers have not deducted the correct amount of tax from their pay packets and that they have underpaid or overpaid as a result.

Six million face PAYE tax shock

Saturday, 4 September 2010

Underpayments mean 1.4 million taxpayers will be required to pay out an average of almost �1,500 each.

HMRC tax collection errors soar by 148 per cent

Sunday, 15 August 2010

HM Revenue & Customs collected �238m too much tax from taxpayers as a result of PAYE errors in the 2009-10 tax year alone, up from �96m the previous year, a freedom of information request has revealed.

Osborne sets up Office for Tax Simplication to review reliefs and business taxes

Wednesday, 21 July 2010

George Osborne announced plans to simplify Britain's "spaghetti bowl" tax system yesterday. The Chancellor is hoping to unravel the "complicated and opaque" process by creating an Office for Tax Simplification (OTS).

How will I afford my degree?

Sunday, 18 July 2010

Vince Cable's plan for a graduate tax may help ease student finances, but not everyone is convinced.

Families face tax-credit crisis again

Sunday, 27 June 2010

The Budget contains hidden hardships for poorer families, writes Alison Shepherd

Hike in VAT will hit consumers at the tills, in pubs and at the pump

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

the government forecasts that the rise in VAT to 20 per cent will fill the Treasury coffers with an additional £13.5bn in the final year of this Parliament in 20015 – making it the biggest driver of revenues unveiled yesterday.

Increase in personal tax allowances for the poor offset by other measures

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

It could have been worse, may just be the judgement of those on the lowest income. The biggest single increase in income tax personal allowances in history sees the amount that can be earned before income tax rise from £6,475 to £7,475 in April 2011, taking 880,000 people out of the income tax system at a stroke.

Capital Gains Tax: Second-home owners are spared punitive rise

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Capital Gains Tax (CGT) was increased by 10 per cent for higher rate taxpayers yesterday, but despite the jump, investors breathed a sigh of relief as the new government decided not to impose a new upper rate of 50 per cent, as many had feared.

£11bn of benefits cuts 'will push many households over the edge'

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

An £11bn cut in Britain's welfare spend will hit struggling families and "trigger a spiral of debt, eviction and homelessness", according to the housing charity, Shelter.

No escape for the rich from Conservative cuts

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Having been the target of the final two Labour budgets, many higher earners may be dismayed to be back in the sights, particularly of a Conservative Chancellor. But those on above-average incomes will nevertheless be counting the cost of Budget day.

Parents face three-year freeze on child benefit pay-outs

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Child benefit will be frozen for three years from April 2011. The rate of child benefit will be kept at £20.30 per week for the eldest child and £13.40 per week for each other child in a family until 2014. Announcing the measure, Mr Osborne said he had considered alternatives such as means-testing the benefit or taxing it, but he claimed that freezing it was the best way to control costs.

Brewers toast reprieve for cider

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

The 10 per cent increase in tax on cider will be reversed at the end of this month, the Chancellor said yesterday. Indeed, it was good news for the battered pub and brewing industries as George Osborne eschewed the traditional Budget day move of increasing duty on alcohol and tobacco, deciding instead to freeze the so-called "vice taxes".

Ministers plan exemptions to rise in capital gains tax

Monday, 31 May 2010

Ministers signalled yesterday that they are planning wide-ranging exemptions to the planned increase in captial gains tax.

Julian Knight: A rise in capital gains tax? It's only fair

Sunday, 30 May 2010

Tory MPs are wrong to oppose reform of CGT – an increase won't penalise ordinary folk, but it will close a fat-cat tax loophole

Taxman says sorry for sharing private details

Thursday, 27 May 2010

HM Revenue & Customs has apologised after accidentally distributing private details about thousands of tax credit claimants.

'Tax code error has led to even more incompetence'

Saturday, 22 May 2010

Taxpayers are angry and frustrated as HM Revenue & Customs fails to deal with problems created by its mistake.

Shock Capital Gains Tax rise angers hardline Tories

Monday, 17 May 2010

Andrew Grice: Tax rise intended to close "black hole" in public finances will anger Tory traditionalists.

Act fast if you want to avoid the new capital gains hike

Sunday, 16 May 2010

The new Lib-Con coalition is pledged to an early emergency budget, reports Chiara Cavaglieri

Taxman may start chasing the low-paid for underpayments

Saturday, 15 May 2010

A new system means that tax mistakes will come to light more easily – but that means some people will be asked to pay more, with pensioners and part-time workers most at risk.

Simon Read: Revenue's error continues to give problems to taxpayers

Saturday, 8 May 2010

The tax code cock-up by HM Revenue & Customs continues to produce victims some months after the original mess when tens of thousands of incorrect tax coding notices were sent out. While many taxpayers were quickly alerted to the mistake by the publicity it generated or because they were sent a number of different codes making it obvious something was wrong; others – especially the elderly – may have failed to realise that there was a major problem.

Get-tough HMRC raises billions

Monday, 26 April 2010

A "no mercy" strategy by HM Revenue & Customs since 2005 has resulted in a significant uplift in revenues clawed back from tax evaders, but concerns have been raised over its "draconian powers" and a "disproportionate" amount of resources being spent investigating smaller companies.