With a month to go before the introduction of the VAT reverse charge mechanism to the Contruction Industry, there are signs that some of the top selling accounting and bookkeeping software for small business is not yet ready for the changes. 

The new chancellor Sajid Javid has said that he will simplify the tax system in his first budget. Yes, Minister! We have all heard all this before and there is even an Office of Tax Simplification to prove it.

The paradox for all chancellors in the task of simplifications is that it will result in some losers and not just winners and no chancellor will want to risk unpopularity.

Hello

We are trying to keep it light this week as so many folk are away on their holidays. We do feature a really interesting VAT case which is also useful if you are one of many of those advisers who ask what can my employment agency client do to remain more competitive?

In HMRC v Pertemps Ltd: [2019] UKUT 0234 (TCC) the Upper Tribunal (UT) has confirmed that providing temporary staff with a salary sacrifice scheme in consideration for a small administration cost was not an economic activity and a supply for VAT made by the employer agency, it was simply an efficient method of paying staff.

In HMRC v Hargreaves Lansdown [2019] UKUT 246 the Upper Tribunal held that loyalty bonuses were annual payments and should have had tax deducted at source.