JD Sports owner heads list of the UK’s top 50 taxpayers January 27, 2019 Financiers, hedge fund managers and housebuilders dominated a new list revealing the UK’s biggest taxpayers, published on Sunday. The Sunday Times tax list, which also includes high profile names such as David and Victoria Beckham, estimates the amount of tax paid to HMRC by the UK’s wealthiest people based on publicly available information. Read more: The [...]
Millions of illegal cigarettes being traded on the black market are costing the UK £2bn in tax January 26, 2019 Millions of fake or bootlegged cigarettes are being sold throughout the UK on the black market to avoid paying duty on them. County councils in Hertfordshire, Durham and Lincolnshire have found illegal cigarettes stashed behind walls, hidden in toilet cisterns and in sweet boxes. The selling of fake cigarettes results in over £2bn of tax [...]
A post-Brexit City: MPs ask the right questions January 25, 2019 City in the morning, Westminster in the afternoon – there was a time when this was the daily routine for a number of MPs. These days, alas, one is hard-pressed to find a parliamentarian who truly understands the Square Mile, but former corporate lawyer Nicky Morgan can claim to be one of them. As head [...]
There’s a lesson from Dyson’s Singapore move, but it has nothing to do with Brexit January 25, 2019 There’s no question that Dyson’s move from Wiltshire to Singapore will be a loss to Britain. The company boasts profits in excess of £1bn, employs 4,000 in its Malmesbury offices alone, and is one of the UK’s major business success stories. But that doesn’t justify the political backlash we’ve seen. In true polarising fashion, owner Sir [...]
DEBATE: Should London impose rent restrictions, as suggested in Sadiq Khan’s campaign plans? January 25, 2019 Should London impose rent restrictions, as suggested in Sadiq Khan’s campaign plans? Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, says YES. Londoners are paying some of the highest rents in the world. Building more homes will plug the shortage at the root of this, but that will take a decade or more. We need urgent action [...]
AG Barr expects rise in revenue as sales fizz January 25, 2019 Irn-Bru maker AG Barr has predicted a rise in full-year revenue this morning, despite echoing the fears of many in its industry over the current political and economic uncertainty. The firm said that revenue is expected to be roughly £277m for the year to 26 January, marking a five per cent rise on the previous [...]
EU tensions over taxation, migration and Italy’s budget highlighted at the World Economic Forum in Davos January 24, 2019 Tensions between European Union members were highlighted today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where leaders clashed over migration and taxation. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said the bloc was divided from north to south and east to west over action on refugees and the commission’s handling of Italy’s 2019 budget, creating a “total [...]
Apprenticeship levels up on last year but still hampered by 2017 levy January 24, 2019 More people started apprenticeships in the first quarter of the 2018-19 academic year than in the year before, but are still below equivalent figures reported in 2016-17 and 2015-16. There were 132,000 starts between August and October last year, up 15.4 per cent year-on-year from 114,300, according to Department for Education (DfE) figures published this [...]
Super-prime time: London surge in high end house sales January 24, 2019 Wealthy buyers have been on a spending spree for multi-million pound trophy houses during the last year, with demand for London’s ‘super prime’ residences bucking a wider slowdown in the capital’s property market. Despite political uncertainty ahead of Britain’s imminent departure from the EU and plans for a new stamp duty on international buyers, activity [...]
Big tech firms like Google, Amazon and Facebook spent a record amount on political lobbying last year January 24, 2019 Google, Amazon and Facebook's bill for lobbying the US government hit record highs last year, as life under the Trump administration put big tech firms in the spotlight. Google parent firm Alphabet said it spent $21.2m (£16.3m) on political lobbying costs in the US last year, topping its previous all-time high of $18.2m achieved in 2012. It [...]