Points to Ponder!

Welcome to our 77^th. newsletter issued in August 2011, to keep you up to date with some of the changes in Income tax, National Insurance and VAT along with compliance regulations for businesses, plus other oddments that have caught our eye. If you would like a copy of any past newsletters, please call and we can either send or e-mail them to you or you can find them on our website.

The current protests by Public Sector Workers about changes to their pension schemes and retirement age is hiding the fact that private sector workers will be much harder hit by the new regime being introduced. It also means that a great deal of Government time is being taken up by these larger pension schemes so there is insufficient time to “educate” small employers. As with the changes to the Construction Industry Scheme, as we feared, the onus of informing those going to be affected is being pushed on to their advisers. We have just received a letter from The Pensions Regulator suggesting that we might like to inform our clients about the changes. We can certainly try but if you do receive any correspondence from The Pensions Regulator, don’t ignore it – again there will be heavy penalties for non-compliance. There are information sheets on the Department for Work & Pensions website and some are quite clear, but it is just going to be more red tape and more costs.

A Government committee has criticised HMRC for failing its customers with long delays of up to three months in answering letters and not answering all telephone calls. Also calls that are answered are not always being dealt with correctly. It has been hardest for older people and those with no Internet access to sort out their queries. HMRC has apologised and promised to try harder. Even using the Agents’ Support lines, we have often found the officers unhelpful. Clients calling the Debt Management offices have reported harsh and unhelpful responses. We know of more than one who when told that time to pay would not be extended, has been forced to close down. This means that the Revenue has lost the entire amount owed as it wouldn’t accept phased payments – where is the logic in this? Debt collection is now being sub-contracted out to private debt collection companies but it is not clear what authority, if any, these companies will have to accept a series of payments. As they are paid on results – i.e. money collected rather than closed files, they may be more helpful than HMRC – we can but hope.

Following residents’ protests, backed by the Federation of Small Businesses and other trade organisations, Claygate has made Surrey County Council back down over its plans to change parking charges in all retail areas. One size does not fit all. Other areas are now increasing their hopefully the small shops will not be hit again. By charging parking in all streets with small shops, customers will move away more to the big chain stores that offer free parking.