01.30.08
News - Bill to raise state pension age
| A bill which will overhaul the UK state pension system has been included in the Queen’s Speech.
Boost for women
Decisions pending
|
01.29.08
News - How to calculate your tax returns
| When you are starting your first business, the last thing you want to have is hassles over how much tax you should be paying.
Small business expert George Derbyshire looks at how a new businessman or woman can most easily approach dealing with their tax returns.
As a hobby I make jewellery, as presents for friends, but also to sell.
I don’t make very much from this. In fact, I don’t think I have made a net profit at all yet. Do I need to make some kind of tax federated national insurance company
This will be your total earnings from sales less all your associated expenses. On the other hand, if you are self-employed and this is your sole income, you are not required to make contributions until your profit exceeds the threshold, currently 4,465.
Ask George Derbyshire a question
You are advised to contact your local HM Revenues & Customs office, as you have to complete the Small Earnings Exemption Form (CF10) if you do not wish to make National Insurance contributions. For more specific advice relevant to your business, you should contact your local Enterprise Agency. Many of them can offer a free consultation session.
You can search for your nearest agency on the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies website (link on the right), or ring us on 01234 831623.
Terms & Conditions
Return to top
|
News - Sacked staff fight for pay
| Workers who were sacked by text message were meeting on Thursday to demand their final pay packets.
Around 200 former staff of The Accident Group consulted with officials of the Trades’ Union Congress (TUC) at Manchester Town Hall. The Accident Group, which was based in Manchester, sacked 2,400 workers in May after its parent company - the Amulet Group - was placed in administration. Most of the employees did not receive their final wages. Some have been told they may not receive benefits they should be entitled to because their national insurance century national insurance company had not been paid up to date.
Former employee Jonathan Bates said: “I received a letter yesterday saying that my National Insurance would only take my job seekers allowance up till December. “It said I hadn’t made enough national insurance contributions, although I’ve been working for the company for three years. “It just begs the question: What else has been going on with the company that we don’t know about? “I just feel really let down by the company - it’s put a lot of people in a really bad situation.” The solicitor who is advising the sacked workers has also claimed the Accident Group directors could be made to pay their wages if any evidence was found of underhand dealing.
Brian Slater, an employment law specialist, said: “If they have national car insurance “It is up to the courts to decide where responsibility lies and that is an issue that needs to be looked at.”
|
News - Lords urge radical pensions plan
Radical changes to pensions have been demanded by a House of Lords committee.
The basic state pension should be replaced with a non-means tested alternative, the all-party Economic Affairs Committee said in its report.
It said the pension should be dependent upon years of UK residence, rather than National Insurance contributions.
The peers also said age federated national insurance
has to end, with employers no longer able to enforce federated national insurance, so people can work and save for longer.
Retirement ages
The lords said putting less emphasis on means-tested benefits and more on the basic state pension would be simpler.
They also said it would encourage people to save more for their pension, without fear of losing entitlements.
It would also be fairer to people - national life insurance company
women - who had not paid in enough National Insurance contributions over the years.
However, BBC economics editor Evan Davies said the lords’ proposed system, although simpler and fairer than the current one, “would, it has to be said, also be more expensive”.
On retirement ages, the lords urged ministers not to permit employers to continue imposing a “normal” limit.
 |
 An enormous number of people are perfectly capable of working on, they want to do it, and they should be judged on their individual merits
Lord Peston
|
They argued that with an ageing population it was economically national union fire insurance company
to prevent older people from working, as well as ageist.
The Labour chairman of the committee Lord Peston told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “An enormous number of people are perfectly capable of working on, they want to do it, and they should be judged on their individual merits.”
He called for people to be allowed to stay on if they wished, as long their employer was happy for them to do so.
“We’re not arguing that people should have the right to stay on whether the employer wants them or not… the employer has to have the task of judging who should stay on.”
|
We do want to have some sort of retirement with dignity, we don’t want to make everything a matter of national insurance
Sue Andersen, CBI
|
But Sue Andersen, director of human resources policy at the UK’s main business group the CBI, warned that judging employees on their merits could end up making the situation worse.
“We do want to have some sort of retirement with dignity, we don’t want to make everything a matter of competence,” she told Today.
“That may well lead to early departure from the workplace because an employer may be tempted to say… ‘you are no longer up to the job and you have to go now’.
01.28.08
News - Pensions backlog ‘not acceptable’
|
A Labour MP has condemned delays at the National Pension Centre which have left tens of thousands of retired people waiting for their correct state pension. The problems affect widowed and divorced people whose pensions should be boosted by the National Insurance contributions paid by their spouse.
But delays in doing the complex national insurance number
Labour MP Jim Cousins, who represents the Newcastle constituency where the National Pension Centre is located, told BBC Radio 4’s Money Box programme: “The basic state pension is the foundation of all income in retirement. “It is not acceptable to have delays where pensioners are bereaved, or where their relationships break down, or where there is a need to calculate a company insurance integon national entitlement to the basic state pension. “These things must be got right.” Complex calculations The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) national heritage insurance company At the end of December, new pension claims from nearly 16,000 recently retired, divorced or widowed people were stuck in a queue while officials worked out what they were due.
The calculation is not straightforward because it depends on two sets of National Insurance contributions, those paid by the pensioner themselves and those paid by their spouse. The DWP also revealed that another 20,000 people were waiting for their pension to be recalculated after the death of their spouse. The total number waiting is now six times what it was three years ago. A spokesman said the delays were due to “a general increase in casework”, and said that since the end of 2003 more staff had been hired and the delays have now been reduced. But he confirmed that 13,000 people are still waiting for their pensions and nearly 17,000 have not had the correct pension increase. He promised things would be back to normal “by the Summer time”. Recently bereaved These assurances were not enough for Sally West, Income Policy Officer with the charity Age Concern. She told the programme: “It is completely unacceptable. It will often be a bereaved woman and if you are recently bereaved the last thing you want to worry about is your pension.” She said a straightforward claim should be paid within 60 days and as people can claim four months before they reach pension age the money should normally arrive on time. And she encouraged people to take action if they were left without their pension. “If there is a problem paying a pension they should be making interim payments. “So, if you are getting little or nothing, get an interim payment. You can also ask for compensation for losses incurred because of not getting the pension sorted out in time.” BBC Radio 4’s Money Box was broadcast on Saturday, 21 February, 2004 at 1204 GMT. The programme was repeated on Sunday, 22 February, 2004 at 2102 BST.
|
News - Happy New Tax Year !
To celebrate the government has given us a whole bunch of new tax payments.
Here are some things to look out for.
Lets kick off with Security national insurance company Insurance.
It used to be that there was no tax paid if you earned 89 a week or less. That’s now 91 a week. So you can earn 2 more and still pay no national insurance.
However whereas you used to pay 11% national insurance earning up to 595 that taxable band has been widened to 610.
Utica national insurance that means if you earn over around 30,000 you are probably paying 60 a year more.
Company cars
The amount of carbon dioxide given off by cars has been reduced and if you have a greener more efficient car the taxable benefit has been washington national insurance.
ISAs
It used to be that if you got dividends in your ISA you’d also get a tax credit. So you’d get 90 worth of dividends and a 10 tax.
However as from today there is no tax credit, so you lose some of the benefit of holding your share in the ISA. However the shares are still free of capital gains tax.
This is also something which affects charities as they used to benefit from a tax credit on dividends but won’t any longer.
There had been a scheme under which national union insurance could set midwest national health insurance
up as companies and pay themselves in dividends rather than a wage.
That way they would pay less tax. However that has now been closed so that dividend payments from these companies will be taxed.
News - Building for a legitimate future
One Polish carpenter tells the BBC how he went from working on the black market to becoming a legitimate construction worker.
Lukas came to the UK from Poland six years ago and now lives in east London with his wife and young son. He told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “The wages are higher, the daily rates are higher. It’s more expensive to live here but you can still make a good living.”
Lukas used to work on the black market but, tired of poor pay and tired of looking over his shoulder all the time, he decided to enter the company insurance integon national building trade.
The first step was to get a temporary CIS4 card - or Jefferson national life insurance Industry Scheme Four - an identity document issued by the Inland Revenue.
It means his employer deducts 18% tax at source.
“That was national life and accident insurance co “I think after a week I received my temporary card.”
No immigration check According the Inland Revenue, anyone can get a temporary CIS4 card, which are valid for one year and then renewable.
There is no check on immigration status and american national insurance But it does not provide proof of right to work.
Only a permanent CIS4 card with a permanent National Insurance number does that.
However, there is widespread confusion within the building industry and a CIS4 card is all that is required on many building sites, including those run by the biggest construction firms.
They generally do not employ workers directly, using sub-contractors instead.
Temporary CIS4 cards are valid for a year and are renewable.
Black sector
It is not hard, though, for skilled tradesman like Lukas to legitimatise their status.
If they are from the former communist states joining the EU in May, or if they are from Romania or Bulgaria, they can get a business visa as self-employed if they convince immigration officers they have a valid business plan.
That, in turn, will give them a National Insurance number. He said: “It was quite difficult. The first visa I got was for one year and then, after I got my National Insurance number and a permanent card, I had to provide some other papers.
“I got a visa for another three years. I had to prove I was self-employed by showing receipts, bank statements and invoices.” Lukas now has a permanent CIS4 card, one of 560,000 in use in the UK.
There are many eastern Europeans who are still in the black sector of construction, working without any kind of CIS card for low wages, paying off agents who helped them get work and often frightened the immigration officers will find them.
Many in the industry hope such practices will die out after 1 May because it should be far easier for citizens of EU accession states to work legitimately, even if they are here already.
But those like Lukas say welfare benefits should not be extended to people like him. His own visa does not allow him to claim them.
He said: “To be honest, I don’t think we should be entitled to all the benefits British people are entitled to because a lot of people will take try and take advantage of the system - that will reflect on all of us.
“I think it’s enough if someone’s willing to pay taxes and can get work here - he doesn’t need to apply for any benefits, does he?”
A new survey suggests there could be as many as 100,000 migrant workers employed on building sites in the UK.
It’s more expensive to live here but you can still make a good living
straightforward. I think it was proof of address, passport and a form my solicitor gave to me and filled it in for me. That was all.
is not recorded.
Lukas has followed that process all the way through.
I think it’s enough if someone’s willing to pay taxes and can get work here - he doesn’t need to apply for any benefits, does he?
01.27.08
News - New pension ‘would help millions’
Britain’s pension problems could be solved by replacing the current system with a “citizen’s pension” starting at 105 a week, a report says. The National National grange insurance of Pension Funds (NAPF) said an interim report on the scheme found it was affordable and could be implemented within six years. It said it would benefit millions of pensioners, particularly women, and would be cheaper to administer. It said the scheme would also be simpler for people to understand.
The citizen’s pension study was conducted by NAPF and the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI). Under the plan, the present system of state payments would be replaced with a universal payment starting at 105 per week and rising with earnings. Eligibility would be based on residency, rather than work record and National Insurance national insurance. Most means testing would be removed and “contracting out” of the state pension would no longer be allowed. Immediate benefit The scheme would be of immediate benefit to around eight million pensioners who currently receive less than 105 a week from the state, the NAPF said. Richard Scott, of BBC Radio Five Live’s Money programme, said NAPF claimed it would particularly benefit women, who often miss out on the full basic state pension because bringing up children stops them making enough National Insurance contributions. NAPF chief executive Christine Farnish said the citizen’s pension would fix Britain’s “illinois national insurance complicated” system. “The beauty of the citizen’s pension lies in its simplicity. The state will provide 105 a week and any saving you do on top of that is yours. “Immediately, the deal from the state is clear. Anyone wanting a better income in retirement understands the need to make additional saving, either through a workplace pension or some other means.” Long-term costs The report found the new system could be implemented by 2010 and would cost no more than the amount currently spent by the government on pensions.
However the long-term costs of the scheme could require measures such as cutting government spending in other areas, raising taxes or National Insurance contributions or lifting the state pension age. The report said such measures would be required eventually under the current system as well. PPI director Alison O’Connell, who worked on the study, said the transition to a new system would require careful planning, but that such a change would ease public concern. “The report shows that a citizen’s pension, while not without some concerns, would be possible and could also have real advantages for state, occupational and personal pensions. “We know from previous research that what people want above all else is a simple pension system, and a citizen’s pension would achieve that.” The report also said a State Pension Review Board should be established to advise the government on pensions and a cross-party agreement on the principles of pension policy should be drafted. The study is open to public consultation before a final report on the plan is released.
|
News - Q&A: Do students pay tax?
Do I pay tax on all my income?
No. Everyone has a tax-free personal allowance.
This means during the 2007/08 tax year you can earn up to 5,225 before your
income is taxed.
Any earnings above this amount are then taxed at 10% up to 2,230; 22% between 2,231 to 34,600; and at 40% on earnings over 34,600.
Are student loans taxable?
No. Student loans along with a number of other forms of support are not taxable.
The following are not taxable:
- Student loans and grants
- National life and accident insurance co from your parents
- Most scholarships
- Most research awards
- Housing benefit
- Most gifts and loans from relatives
- Income from Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)
- Prizes won by students for academic excellence.
What is taxable?
The most common forms of taxable income are earnings from full or part-time work, including tips and bonuses, and any income from self-employment.
|
The numbers which accompany the letters in your code represent the actual amount of allowance you have, in other words tax free income, before you have to pay tax 
How to read your tax code
|
If you receive dividends from shares in a company, Jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) or interest from most National Savings Accounts, they are all taxable.
Interest from savings with a bank or building society is taxable, unless your total taxable income in the year is below the 5,225 threshold.
Have I paid too much tax?
You may find that you have paid too much tax - maybe because you weren’t aware of the rules.
If your income for the same tax year is likely to remain below 5,225, you can claim back tax during that tax year.
If you think you have paid too much tax contact Revenue and Customs for a repayment claim form.
If you wish to see someone in person, you can search for your nearest Revenue office under the “Contact us” section on the department’s website (see link on right).
What happens when I start my first job?
When you start work for the first time, your employer should give you a P46 form to complete.
This will mean you receive your wages under “Pay As You Earn” (PAYE), and you should be taxed correctly.
Your employer will send this to the Inland Revenue after your first payday to check its employer’s calculations.
The Revenue might send you form P91 to complete to ensure that you pay the right amount of tax.
What if I’ve worked before?
If you have worked before or claimed Jobseekers allowance, you should have a P45 from your last job or when you stopped claming.
Hand this to your new employer; otherwise you will end up paying too much tax.
If you do not have a P45, get a P46 off your new employer.
I’ve paid too much tax. How do I claim it back?If you think you have paid too much tax during any one tax year, you should try to claim a refund.
Contact the Revenue to get a claim form.
You can contact the Revenue’s inquiry line on 0845 307 5555.
Alternatively, if you wish to see someone in person, you can search for your nearest Revenue office under the “Contact us” section on its website (see link on right).
What happens if I’m only planning on working in the holidays?
Students who work only during their holidays and do not expect to earn more than 5,225 should ask their employer to complete form P38(S) which will ensure their wages are paid gross.
This does not apply to evening or part-time work outside normal holiday times, when students are required to complete form P46.
Some students who have completed form P38 (S) may be required to complete a tax return at the end of every tax year to ensure that their total taxable income has not exceeded their personal allowance.
Do I pay National Insurance national alliance insurances?
Most students are not required to pay National Insurance lincoln national life insurance, because their earnings are too small.
However, every employed worker whose earnings exceed the primary threshold of 100 per week must pay Class 1 (earnings-related) contributions.
These are deducted from wages/salaries by the employer. The rate of contribution depends on total earnings.
No contributions are payable under the age of 16 or by people over pensionable age.
The Revenue and Customs National Insurance Contributions Office (NICO) keeps the records for everyone’s contributions throughout their working lives.
Where can I get further national heritage insurance company?
If you need further information, leaflet IR60 on the Revenue and Customs website has more information on income tax and students.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own particular situation.
News - Teachers vote to boycott tests
| The National Union of Teachers is to ballot its members on action to start this autumn.
It has raised concerns over children’s wellbeing, the pressure on staff from exam targets and a narrowing of the curriculum. After a lively debate at the NUT annual conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, members voted unanimously in favour of a boycott. John Whearty, a secondary school teacher from Liverpool, said the maths and English tests, known as Sats, were “dangerous for our kids”.
He added: “It makes me feel quite rotten to be part of something that’s so obviously wrong. “The tests are about collecting useless data, which the government collects and uses to batter teachers.
“These are false liberty national life insurance “The Sats have weighed heavily on us as teachers. It’s quite humiliating and it holds us back from other things we should be doing.” ‘Set up to fail’ After the motion was passed, delegates rose to their feet, repeatedly chanting: “No more Sats.” The NUT, which has 250,000 members, will also circulate a national petition, calling on the Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, to end the tests. It is planning to hold public meetings, distribute leaflets and approach other unions to join in the boycott. Sats at age seven are only taken in England, and at age 11 in England and Wales. Those for 14 year olds are taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and include testing on science. Last year, the National health insurance government failed to meet its target that 75% of 11 year olds in England should have reached the required standard in maths and 80% in English. The NUT claims the pressure to perform in Sats is damaging some children’s mental health. Marilyn Evans, a primary school teacher from Croydon, Surrey, said: “We should stop these Sats. Assessment should be continuous, not in this form. Sats set children up to fail.” John National council on compensation insurance, former NUT president, added: “Our most obvious allies are parents. They understand the damage these tests do. We must work with them.” In another debate, the NUT also voted unanimously to condemn the government’s handling of school finances. This came after weeks of complaints that teachers would have to be made redundant because of miscalculations on government funding. Some schools face six-figure budget deficits as a result of extra payments for pensions, National Insurance and other staffing changes. A sum of 500m is unaccounted for. The government believes this is being withheld from schools by local national fire insurance company. The authorities claim they have not received the money.
According to the NUT motion, the government has “grossly underestimated” the amount required to make the necessary state national insurance
|