News

Late payment is an issue which many SME businesses are horribly familiar with and new legislation has recently come into force to help deal with it. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013 came into force on 16th March 2013, bringing the UK in line with European Union legislation. The regulations affect transactions between […]

Responding to the article issued by APSCO entitled APSCO Supports Umbrella Company Members published on 22nd May, Adrian Marlowe, Chairman of the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC), said “Lawspeed, as part of its normal day to day business, gave legitimate advice on a live issue of concern for both agencies and umbrella companies. ARC now […]

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is turning up the heat on its Managed Service Company (MSC) investigations, and in articles on Friday 17 and Monday 20 May, Recruiter online reported that HMRC has already achieved results in recovering monies by using the debt transfer provisions in the MSC tax legislation. Friday’s article referred to a […]

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has asked Lawspeed to let our clients and readers know that help is available for payroll departments who may be struggling with the new Real Time Information system. Since 6 April, employers have had to use a new way of reporting PAYE called Real Time Information (RTI) where they report […]

Fees are expected to be introduced for anyone making a claim or an appeal in Employment Tribunals in new rules expected to come into force in July 2013. The aim is to transfer some of the £84m cost of running the Employment Tribunals from the taxpayer to those who use the system. It is also […]

HMRC won another important legal case last month when Tax QC Rex Bretten, who designed his own tax avoidance scheme,  failed in his bid to avoid paying £190,000 in tax. The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said: “This is simply unacceptable and this case serves to highlight the work HMRC is doing to […]

It has long been a dormant concern of agencies that umbrella companies, those providers that offer ‘tax efficient’ and employment services to contractors, may one day start competing for the very services that agencies offer to their clients. After all, agencies provide them with details of candidates and clients such that the providers are able […]

Workplace pensions law has changed and every employer with workers in the UK will be required to help more of their workers save for their retirement. The new rules apply to more and more companies each month and it is important for employers to be aware when their staging date is and begin to put […]

April and October are traditionally the times when employment law changes occur in the UK.  However April 2013 saw minimal change but more significant change is scheduled for the summer. April did see the annual increase in statutory payments, with Statutory Sick Pay rising from £85.85 per week to £86.70 and Statutory Maternity, Paternity and […]

Not for the first time a recruitment professional is sitting on the other side of the work-seeking process and undertaking “the world’s toughest job interview” with Lord Alan Sugar. Natalie Panayi, a 30 year old Recruitment Manager from Rickmansworth can be seen alongside fifteen other candidates in the first episode of BBC1’s The Apprentice TV […]

Google has been fined 145,000 euros (£125,000) for “one of the biggest known data protection violations in history”. It follows investigations launched a year ago by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK and authorities across Europe into Google’s privacy policy which did not provide users with the right to opt out of their […]

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published guidance on how the forthcoming amendment to the IR35 legislation will be implemented, in respect of ‘office holders’. Legal experts, Lawspeed, have argued that the HMRC definition “a position which has an existence independent of the person who holds it and may be filled by successive holders” is […]

As many Employment Agencies (“EA”) and Employment Business (“EB”) are aware, individuals operating through a company can “opt out” of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (“Regulations”) by signing a suitable notice. This has various positives for the agency, not the least that the limitations in the Regulations on transfer fee […]

The Department for Education has embarked upon a campaign to remind agencies providing staff to schools of their obligations to check the right to work in the UK under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (IANA). So what are the rules? Under the IANA it is illegal to employ someone who does not have […]