News

July 13, 2026

Proposed offence for reckless, untrue tax statements

HMRC have proposed a new criminal offence for making reckless, untrue statements or declarations about what's known as 'direct taxes' - Income Tax, National Insurance and the like. For Customs and Excise and VAT ('indirect taxes'), it is already possible to prosecute individuals who make untrue statements or submit incorrect documents either knowingly or recklessly, without the need to prove dishonesty. The penalties for such offences can be severe, including substantial fines and imprisonment. The direct tax regime does not currently contain an equivalent offence.

July 9, 2026

Britain's yearly £44m health & safety violations bill

A new Freedom of Information (FOI) request has discovered that health and safety violations cost British employers over £44 million per year. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that serious breaches have resulted in an increasing number of prosecutions between 2023 and 2025.

February 7, 2024

Cuts to National Insurance rates benefit January pay packets

The 12% to 10% employees national insurance rate cut first announced in the Autumn Statement came into effect in January. This means that many employees will have seen a boost in their take home pay in their January pay packet.

February 5, 2024

Streamlining your business: Strategies to speed up customer payments and improve cash flow

Begbies Traynor, a firm of business rescue and recovery specialists, have published their latest Red Flag Alert based on financial data from the last quarter of 2023. It makes worrying reading as they estimate that more than 47,000 businesses in the UK are near collapse because of being in critical financial distress.

February 2, 2024

Fake reviews, hidden fees and shop labelling to be tackled by new laws

The Department for Business and Trade are making changes that will ban dripped fees, make fake reviews illegal, and make sure that price labelling on supermarket shelves is clearer.

January 31, 2024

UK services exports to be helped by £500,000 government funding

The government has pledged £500,000 of funding to help facilitate agreements that will allow UK professionals to qualify more easily to provide services in foreign countries.