About 29% of companies plan to cut jobs in the next three months, according to the British Chambers of Commerce. This is the highest figure since this record started in 1989. [20.07/3]Read More

TSB regards a furloughed worker as having an annual income of £1 when considering an application for a mortgage, it was disclosed in July 2020. As the bank offers mortgages of 4½ times salary, this means the maximum mortgage is £4.50. The bank says that it needs to be sure that the borrower can repay...Read More

From 1 August 2020, employers must decide on whether to bring back employees to the workplace. Early indications are that many employees who have been working from home will be allowed to continue to do so. [20.07/3]Read More

On 19 July 2020, the government announced ten “Nightingale courts” to be temporarily set up to deal with the backlog of cases during the coronavirus lockdown. Further sites are being examined. [20.07/2]Read More

A payment to a charity did not attract tax relief when the sum was not immediately needed for charitable purposes, but was lent back to the donor, a finance company, to earn interest. An appeal was partly allowed as the tribunal held that HMRC had used a wrong figure. Reb Moise Foundation [2020] TC 7785...Read More

The Financial Conduct Authority has hired accounting firm BDO to help its monitoring of Wirecard, the German payments company which has collapsed in a suspected multi-billion euro fraud. The European Securities and Markets Association (ESMA) is to launch an assessment of the German financial reporting system following the collapse.  [20.07/3]Read More

A taxpayer had reasonable excuse for not paying high income child benefit charge when he was unaware that his wife was claiming child benefit, and had no reason to ask her. Also, at the time he was suffering from mental illness which led to him “burying his head” and not communicating with his wife. The...Read More

Apple has won an appeal against the European Commission which ordered Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to the Irish government. The Commission said this violated EU law on state aid. The EJU’s General Court annulled the decision, saying that the EU had not produced sufficient evidence to show that Apple and the...Read More

British Airways (BA) announced in July 2020 that it is retiring all its Boeing 747 jumbo aircraft. BA operates 31 such aircraft, the highest number of any world airline, and representing about 10% of BA’s entire fleet. The decision to bring forward their retirement date has been prompted by the steep fall in airline travel...Read More

HMRC was unable to reclaim a sum of £629 owed under PAYE from 2016/17 as the company had acted in good faith and HMRC made two errors in attempting to reclaim the funds. The employer was an employment agency with an exemplary record for operating PAYE. In 2015/16, a woman joined the company. Twice in...Read More