The “Funding for Lending” scheme – a joint venture by the Treasury and the Bank of England - is designed to incentivise banks and building societies to boost their lending to UK households and non-financial companies.
As part of the scheme commercial banks will be able to exchange collateral, such as existing loans for pieces of paper known as Treasury bills, on which they will pay an interest rate of 0.25 percent.
Banks and other lenders will then be able to use these bills as backing with which to borrow cash cheaply on the wholesale markets, money they can then lend onto homes and firms.
Unveiling the scheme, the Chancellor George Osborne confirmed that it would ultimately supersede the £20 billion National Loan Guarantee Scheme, which was launched earlier this year in a bid to boost lending to businesses.
Mr Osborne, said: “The National Loan Guarantee Scheme has made a real difference, with over 16,000 cheaper loans worth over £2.5bn already offered to businesses across the UK.
“In many cases, the money saved has meant an extra person employed who otherwise still might be looking for work.”
For more information, please visit www.milsted-langdon.co.uk
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It was revealed yesterday (July 30th 2012) that the government has paid out over £1 million in rewards for information on tax cheats since the start of the financial crisis.
According to the figures received by an investigative website, HMRC paid out nearly £400,000 last year as part of little known “bounty payments” for reporting on tax evasion – with the figures rising by over a fifth from the previous financial year.
The reported figures reveal that the value paid for information typically varies from £50 to tens of thousands of pounds, depending on how much tax was recouped as a result of the information; and one of the largest payments is reported to have been paid four years ago when HMRC paid £100,000 for a list of secret offshore accounts held by Britons.
Following the release of the figures, a spokesperson for HMRC described the annual totals as “lumpy” claiming that a few big rewards in a year were able to skew the figures.
The spokesperson added: “If we are recovering many millions of pounds in tax, the payment reflects that.” However they added that payments are at HMRC’s discretion, and the rewards depend on “the value of the information and the quality of the result”, he added, although they are not a fixed percentage of the tax recouped.”
For more information, please visit www.milsted-langdon.co.uk
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It has been revealed that the UK’s largest businesses paid out a combined £1.34 billion following HMRC investigations into VAT avoidance within the 2010 – 2011 tax year – more than treble the amount paid the year before – as businesses subjected to new investigations jumped forty-two percent.
The latest figures, which were released as part of a Freedom of Information request, show that HMRC has begun taking a tougher and more aggressive approach to tax and VAT compliance.
However, it has been claimed that such an approach could leave the taxman on a collision course with UK businesses; with a spokesperson for the firm behind the Freedom of Information request, saying: “VAT could become an important battleground between business and HMRC in the next couple of years. Both sides are under pressure: businesses to maintain profits, HMRC to increase its revenue.”
Following the release of the figures, HMRC have claimed that they were distorted by exceptional items including a one-off payment of £500 million which was brought by investigations into the leisure and gaming industry.
HMRC added that it works hard to ensure that the right amount of tax is paid at the right time, added that the avoidance industry had been seriously undermined by its focus on tackling avoidance, preventing billions of pounds being diverted from the Exchequer.
For more information, please visit www.milsted-langdon.co.uk
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HMRC have confirmed, within revised guidance on adviser charging, that consultancy charges will be paid only by employees who join an employers’ pension scheme.
Towards the end of last year, HMRC received criticism for its draft guidance over how consultancy charges would be applied if only a portion of employees advised agree on joining a pension scheme. However, following the criticism, HMRC have updated the guidelines, which now state that the cost of the advice fro setting up a personal pension scheme or a group personal pension scheme would be met from the funds of those employees who join.
Following the publication of the revised guidelines, a spokesperson for HMRC said: “The pensions industry raised concerns with HMRC about guidance it had published at the end of last year about the impacts of adviser charging on members of registered pension schemes.
“As requested by the pensions industry, the updated guidance also gives customers additional assurance on the treatment of consultancy charges, which are paid to firms advising employers on pension provision for employees.”
The new guidelines on adviser charging for personal and group pensions also advises that adviser charges payable in connection with annuity purchases would not affect the maximum tax free lump sum payable.
For more information, please visit www.milsted-langdon.co.uk
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Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions have revealed that only a quarter of private sector workers are active members of their employers’ pension schemes – down by a third compared to figures from 2007.
The latest Employers’ Pension Provision survey carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions, along with showing that only a quarter of private sector workers are active members of their employers’ pension schemes, also reveal that only three in ten private sector businesses offer their staff any pension provision – another fall from five years ago, when the figures stood at four in ten.
In addition to a fall in the number of businesses within the private sector offering any form of pension provisions, the survey has also found that twenty-six percent of private sector employees are either active members of a work-place pension scheme or have arrangements whereby the employer makes a contribution to a private pension.
With auto-enrolment only a few weeks away, the figures reveal the need for more to be done by both employers and employees in regard to pensions and planning for retirement; sentiments echoed by one of the authors behind the survey, who said: “This report clearly demonstrates the need for the auto-enrolment reforms, but it also demonstrates the scale of the challenge ahead.
“Many of the very largest employers are ready. But there is still a great deal to be done to spread awareness and build understanding among small employers.”
For more information, please visit www.milsted-langdon.co.uk
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