HLAS

RPA recognises that this is a really challenging time for many rural businesses and they share some updates and reflect on what has been achieved in the website link below. The updates include: the Sustainable Farming Incentive in 2022 Landscape Recovery and Local Nature Recovery the Lump Sum Exit scheme RPA have published their 5 Year Strategy which sets out their main objectives in delivering agricultural transition, meeting both customer expectations and policy needs, delivering environmental outcomes through a quality service and being an exemplar of the Civil Service’s Operational Delivery Profession working in practice. RPA continued to deliver a [...]

Watch a webinar and sign up for email alerts to learn more about the support available if your business is affected by COVID-19. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) Rebate Scheme Register for the next live webinar about COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme 2. You will learn about: making payments to employees who are off sick or self-isolating because of COVID-19 on or after December 2021 what employees you can claim for under the scheme Watch a video about COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme 2. COVID-19 Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme 2. How to report COVID-19 taxable grants and payments Watch [...]

Future homebuyers will see their prospective property bills reduce in just over two months, when the government’s ban on charging ground rent on new leases in England and Wales comes into force. The government is taking action to rid future homeowners of annual costs – known as ground rent. Sometimes worth hundreds of pounds a year, these charges provide no clear service in return and can be set to escalate regularly, with a significant financial burden for leaseholders. From 30 June 2022, anyone buying a home on a long new lease will now be freed from these annual costs, helping [...]

The Regional Talent Engines programme is a new offer that will provide a tailored programme of support to aspiring engineering and technology entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland, North West England, North East England, and Yorkshire & Humber. The programme is designed to provide you with the practical support you need to help refine your innovation and bring your vision to life. By the end of the programme you will be ready to seek further support for your new startup or pitch for your first investment to bring your innovation to market. Places on the programme will be awarded through a competitive application process, with the most [...]

HMRC has updated its guidance on tax treatment of tips, gratuities, service charges and troncs to include details on how to handle electronic payments. The payment of tips is commonplace for employees in the catering and service industries. As the pandemic has accelerated a move away from payment in cash, there has also been a shift towards customers paying tips electronically. The updated guidance for employers includes examples of systems for the electronic payment of tips. The guidance reflects that a payment made electronically does not change any of the basic principles for deciding how tax is to be accounted [...]

Grants of up to £3,000 are available to enable rural pub owners, licensees, and local communities to work together to help support and sustain local services in Wales, Scotland and England. Pub is the Hub’s Community Services Fund will assist projects which support the needs of local communities by using pubs to offer a new service or replace a service that has already been lost, such as a local shop, library, post office or community centre, or encouraging the local sourcing of products, providing school meals, IT training and church services. Funding will support projects where no other local funding [...]

All benefit claimants will be moved over to Universal Credit by the end of 2024, with moves from legacy schemes resuming next month, the Department for Work and Pensions announced last week. The restart follows a pause to the process during the pandemic when staff were focused on supporting the surge of new claimants to Universal Credit. The six benefits being replaced all have complex and inefficient systems based on aging, inflexible IT. Universal Credit uses a modern, digital system which stood up to the test of Covid-19 where it quickly ensured three million new claimants were protected from the [...]

About 2.1 million tax credits customers have begun to receive their annual renewal packs from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The packs will be sent between 25 April and 27 May, and customers have until 31 July to check their details are correct and update HMRC if there has been a change in their circumstances. There are 2 types of renewal packs: if it has a red line across the first page and says, ‘reply now’, customers will need to confirm their circumstances to renew their tax credits if it has a black line across the first page and says, ‘check now’, [...]

With employees’ and directors’ P11d’s for 2021/22 due by 6 July 2022 it is timely to remind employers of the rules for travel and subsistence, particularly as HMRC have recently issued some updated guidance and useful examples of their interpretation of the law. Tax relief for employee travel costs is available provided the journey isn’t ordinary commuting or private travel. Thus, amounts paid by the employer would not be taxable. No relief is available for ordinary commuting, which is travel between home (or a place that is not a workplace) and a ‘permanent workplace’. There are a number of criteria [...]

The UK has announced new measures to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia by removing all tariffs covered by the existing UK-Ukraine trade deal. The measures include: UK to cut tariffs on all goods from Ukraine to zero under the UK-Ukraine FTA, providing much-needed economic support. New export ban on products and technology that Russia could use to repress the people of Ukraine. Tariff measures are part of broad UK economic support to Ukraine, including £1bn in loan guarantees. See: UK announces new trade measures to support Ukraine - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)