A South African born airline pilot worked for a British airline. He maintained houses in South Africa and the UK. Even though he had no family, and his activities in the UK were minimal compared to South Africa, it was held that he was UK resident for tax purposes. Grace v HMRC (No 2) TC...Read More

The Treasury has published a tax consultation tracker which gives details of tax consultations between 31 March 2011 and the autumn of 2011. Consultations that are still open are: – moderning the administration of the personal tax system, – income tax and national insurance simplification, – enterprise investment scheme and venture capital trusts, – Gift...Read More

The premier of the gospel-based musical Godspell was 40 years ago today, on 17 June 1971.Read More

Britain will take years to recover from the financial crisis, according to Bank of England governor Mervyn King. His comments were made as the Bank reduced its growth forecast for 2011 down from 2.2% to 2.0%, having already reduced it earlier this year from 2.5%. However the governor did say that Britain was having a...Read More

HMRC is changing the addresses on PAYE and self-assessment forms from May 2011. The change is to replace the address with a PO Box number. The ostensible reason is “to speed up the handling of post”. In reality this is a further depersonalisation of the tax system. At the beginning of 2011, HMRC admitted that...Read More

The average price of a British home in April 2011 was £160,395 according to Halifax. Values fell by 1.4% between March and April, and are at their lowest levels since July 2009.Read More

Banks may have to pay up to £9 bn in compensation for mis-selling payment protection insurance. Such policies were widely added to credit card bills, ostensibly to protect card-holders against an inability to pay their credit card bills if they became ill or unemployed. These policies often offered poor value for money, and provided limited...Read More

The government has published the responses to its consultation document on taxing foreign branches. The change is broadly intended to ensure that all businesses pay UK tax on their UK profits, and only on their UK profits. Government proposals were broadly welcomed by respondents.Read More

The money laundering fee remains at £110. This is the annual registration fee that must be paid by businesses required to register. The fee was reduced from £120 in December 2010.Read More

The newly elected SNP-led Scottish government is seeking amendments to allow it to vary the rate of corporation tax in Scotland. At present, the Scottish Parliament only has limited powers to vary the basic rate of income tax.Read More