Posted on 15 Jan 2014 in Business, Finance, News
HMRC opened 256 new IR35 investigations into consultants and freelancers in 2012/13, up from just 59 in 2011/12, according to official figures. HMRC revealed that the majority of cases it had investigated concerned high-risk and “wilfully non-compliant” companies i.e. where all their contracts would fall within the scope of IR35. Robin Wythes, HMRC Employment Status Team Leader, explained that HMRC is now “trying to see IR35 from the view of the...
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Posted on 15 Jan 2014 in Business, Information, News
Employers must ensure that temporary staff who regularly process personal information receive adequate data protection training, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has warned. The warning follows recent data breaches at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, where letters including information about patients’ treatment were sent to incorrect addresses by temporary workers who had not received sufficient data protection training. Sally Anne Poole, ICO...
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Posted on 15 Jan 2014 in Business, Finance
A consultation on paperless self assessment (SA) has been opened by HMRC as part of its Digital Strategy published in December 2012. The consultation, which closes on 27th December 2013, is seeking views on planned changes to legislation that will enable HMRC to provide a paperless service, sending communications to taxpayers electronically instead of by post. Only around a quarter of HMRC’s dealings with taxpayers are online, although the majority of taxpayers...
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Posted on 15 Jan 2014 in Business, News
The National Crime Agency’s (NCA’s) National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) has issued a warning about a new mass e-mail malware campaign. The e-mails, which are specifically targeted at smaller firms and consumers, appear to be from financial institutions, but carry a malicious attachment that encrypts files on the infected computer and any local network it is attached to. A £500 ransom demand in bitcoins is then made to unlock the files. The NCCU is urging firms not...
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Posted on 15 Jan 2014 in Business, Information, Technology
New regulations outlining the process to be followed by website publishers who receive complaints about comments posted on their sites will come into force on 1st January 2014. Under the Defamation (Operators of Websites) Regulations, publishers will be required to contact comment authors to inform them of a complaint and give them five days either to consent to the removal of their comment, or provide the publisher with their contact details to be passed to the...
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Posted on 6 Jun 2013 in Business, News
I was asked to speak with P3, p4 and P5 pupils from Claremont and St John’s Primaries about business enterprise and setting up and running a company. It was quite exciting talking with primary pupils about what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur – talking about local success stories and what is involved. The schools are merging, so instead of a committee creating the school uniform and logo, both Schools decided to embark on an interactive...
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