Policy News Journal - 2016-17

The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals ……………………………………………………………Policy News Journal

The OTS is advertising for up to 3 tax professionals with current or recent experience in the private sector or within government, to work with them full or part-time for the next 9 to 12 months or possibly longer, on a variety of areas of OTS work.

If you are interested you can find out more about these posts and apply here through the civil service jobs website.

The closing date for applications is 2 March 2017.

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Finance (No.2) Bill 2017 23 March 2017

HM Treasury has published the Finance (No.2) Bill 2017 with an aspiration for it to provide a modern, fairer and more sustainable tax system.

Of the Finance Bill 2017 Jane Ellison, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said:

“With this Finance Bill we continue to take important steps towards a fair and sustainable tax system, that raises and protects the revenues needed to fund public services and ensures those with the broadest shoulders contribute the most. The bill also introduces measures to make the tax system fairer and enhance the sustainability of our public finances, by:  ensuring that large businesses pay the right amount of tax in line with OECD recommendations that prevent them from reducing their taxable profits with excessive interest (announced at Budget 2016);  ensuring that corporations making substantial profits cannot offset all their tax liability with past losses (announced at Budget 2016);  ending the permanency of non-dom status (announced at Summer Budget 2015 ) while encouraging greater investment in the UK through expanding the Business Investment Relief (announced at Autumn Statement 2016)  reforming the rules around salary sacrifice (announced at Autumn Statement 2016) …”

The future tax system may yet prove to be modern, fair and more sustainable however simplicity isn’t going to be a key feature as the explanatory notes alone run to 448 pages and the Finance (No.2) Bill over 700.

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£10 minimum wage if Labour win next election 11 April 2017

Labour’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to £10 per hour by 2020 would boost the income of 5.6 million people, more than 20% of the UK’s workforce.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has set out plans for a Real Living Wage (RLW) which would replace the National Living Wage (NLW) and would abolish the lower pay rate for under 25s.

According to Politics Home analysis published by Labour shows a full-time worker on the NLW (which is projected to hit £8.75 per hour by 2020) would be £2,500 better off under the RLW plan. A full-time worker under the age of 25 on the lower National Minimum Wage (projected to be £7.75 per hour by 2020) would be £4,500 better off on the RLW rate. Labour’s analysis also claims that areas outside of London and the South East will benefit most from the £10 rate, with more than a quarter of the workforces in Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber set for a pay rise.