Business News - May 2007

It is a common misconception that interest from offshore bank accounts is not subject to UK tax.

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From 1 July 2007, as a result of provisions in the Health Act 2006, enclosed public places and workplaces have to be smoke free. This date applies to England only. Wales and Scotland are already smoke free. Wales went smoke free from 2 April this year, whilst Scotland has already past its first anniversary of the introduction of the law which became effective from 26 March 2006. The date for the introduction of the law in Northern Ireland is 30 April 2007.

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A few months ago we reported on the proposal by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) to increase the minimum statutory holiday entitlement from the current 20 days (including bank holidays) to 28 days (bank holidays inclusive). The DTI have been consulting with interested parties and should shortly publish the findings of their consultation.

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Following negotiations with other European Community member states the UK Government has decided to implement the reverse charge accounting mechanism on mobile phones and computer chips with effect from 1 June 2007. HMRC are restricting the new rules to mobile phones and integrated circuit devices. Blackberry’s fall within the definition of a mobile phone and will come within the scope of the reverse charge rules.

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HMRC have recently issued a considerable number of penalty notices to employers for not submitting their 2005/06 employer annual and contractor returns, which were due for submission by 19 May 2006.

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Research by Vanson Bourne for Microsoft has concluded that a significant number of businesses apparently have no formal approach to project management, with a fifth of small business employees managing projects ‘in their head’.

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The system of tax reliefs on expenditure on equipment in your business is a complex one. Broadly when you buy a piece of equipment to use in your business you normally cannot set the full cost against that year’s profits, unless the value of the item is quite small, or a special tax relief applies. The cost of more expensive items is written off against profits over a number of years, using the capital allowances system.

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The Charity Commission has published some supplementary guidance on campaigning and political activities by charities. The guidance takes the form of questions and answers and has been issued to supplement the 2004 guidance. This sought to set out the framework of law and regulation for charities that wished to engage in campaigning and political activities.

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