Equality Bill 2009 – Government U-Turn

Article by HR Consultant Bob Cox

The government and in particular Harriet Harman have been forced into a U-turn on one of the more controversial aspects of the Equality Bill which is due to come onto the statute books in March 2010. This action has been taken to try and ensure the Bill’s passage through Parliament before the general election next year.

A report in the Sunday Times on 13th December 2009 highlighted a change to the Equal Pay reporting regulations, until recently all Public Sector employers and all private sector employers with 250 or more employees would be require to report on pay differentials between male and female employees in a significant turn around it has now been decided that this clause will apply to those private sector employers with 500 or more employees; meaning that 97% of employers are now exempt from the reporting procedures.

This is good news you may think, but if you tender to the public sector for contracts you may well be required to comply with this aspect of the Bill no matter how many employees you have and to show that you do so as part of your tendering compliance.

But overall some commonsense prevails.

Of course if Gordon Brown decides to go to the country in March (as is being speculated) then the whole Equality Bill may not receive Royal Assent and both David Cameron’s Conservatives and Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrat whilst supporting the overall principles of the Bill would like to see some changes before it becomes law.

We wait and see!!!!!

For further advice on how the Equality Bill could impact on Employment issues contact Bob Cox in our HR team at bob.cox@wardgoodman.co.uk or call him on 01202 875900

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Wimborne businesses save Spetisbury Primary school recycling initiative

Latest Ward Goodman Press Release:

Wimborne based businesses Commercial Recycling and Ward Goodman have clubbed together to ensure the pupils of Spetisbury primary school can still compete in their annual Yellow Pages recycling competition.

Teachers and parents feared the competition would need to be cancelled after being informed by a Yellow Pages representative that their company would not be organising the event this year.

Following a plea from the school, Ian Rodd Director of Ward Goodman Chartered Accountants contacted his client, Commercial Recycling Limited, to organise the competition and sponsor the prizes for the winning children.

Pupils are aiming to collect over 500 directories which will be recycled through Commercial Recycling Limited.

“We are delighted to be helping out with this year’s competition and hopeful of expanding the event to further schools next year” Stuart Mariner, Commercial Recycling

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Ward Goodman please contact 01202 875900

Pre Budget Report or Pre Election Announcement?

by Geoff Hill

Today’s Pre Budget Report could well prove to be Alistair Darling’s last outing as Chancellor. Only history will tell, but it was clear that we were delivered a mixture of Pre Budget future pain and a Pre Election statement that deliberately left some areas untouched – no doubt with a view to winning votes at the impending election.

We had expected increases in capital gains tax but this area was entirely untouched. VAT is due to return to 17.5% as preannounced– with the key thing not being announced is any further rise in VAT. The planned 1% rise in corporation tax is also being deferred a further year, so this is good news and remains at 21% for those smaller companies making profits.

Now comes the inevitable pain. Rates and allowances were frozen largely across the board, so in real terms - after inflation is taken into account - taxes will rise for most people. There will also be a further 0.5% National Insurance increase for most employees, but not until 2011. Further tinkering with pension contributions and tax rates for higher earners makes specialist advice on this area crucial. City bankers wondering whether to take that discretionary bonus or not would be better off staying at their after-office party in the city than reading the newspapers following the announcement of a new 50% banker bonus tax.

Will any of this matter? Well, we will have a General Election before next year’s Finance Act makes most of these changes law, so further changes seem inevitable. Those who wish to escape all of this may be well advised to head for the hills in their Electric Cars – now announced to be a tax-free benefit for employees!

If you would like to discuss how you could be affected by the changes announced, please contact your usual Ward Goodman contact or me and we will be pleased to help.

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Ward Goodman please contact 01202 875900

Financial News Round Up

Simon Willcox, Director of Ward Goodman Financial Services has just compiled a roundup of key financial new stories from the media.

To view his newsletter please visit: http://eepurl.com/fvig

If you would like to join Simon’s distribution list please click here. (Please add in the message or subject Subscribe to Financial news Update)

To find out more about any of these stories or
Ward Goodman please contact 01202 875900

Another last chance for declarations to HMRC of Offshore Bank Accounts!

The deadline for notifying HMRC of a previously undeclared offshore bank account under the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO) has been extended by HM Revenue & Customs to 4 January 2010. Although HMRC have put the appropriate spin on their announcement we can presume that the deadline has been extended because HMRC have not received as many disclosures as they were expecting.

Any disclosures made under the NDO will attract, in most cases, a fixed penalty of only 10% of any tax due.

Offshore bank accounts include those held in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
We do not expect the deadline to be moved again and therefore if you think that you may need to make a disclosure please contact John Davies, our specialist on Revenue enquiries, to discuss as soon as possible. We finish with a festive quote from Dave Hartnett, HMRC’s Permanent Secretary for Tax:

"This is a great way to start the New Year – with the knowledge that your tax affairs are in order and the certainty that the penalty will be capped at 10 percent."

New penalties for late payment of employer and contractor PAYE & CIS

Yet another new range of penalties are being introduced with effect from April 2010. These penalties will apply to late payments of paye tax, national insurance contributions, student loan deductions and construction industry scheme deductions.

There are two separate penalties. The first is for payments that are late by up to 6 months. The second is for payments that are more than 6 months overdue and also for late payment of annual payments such as Class 1a NIC on benefits in kind and paye settlement agreements.

The new penalties apply to all employers irrespective of their size.

The penalties for late payments up to 6 months will range from 1% of the late payment where there are between 2 and 4 late payments in the tax year up to 4% where there are 11 or more late payments in the tax year. There will not be a penalty under this section if only one payment is late.

If your payment is over 6 months late the penalty will be 5% of the amount outstanding and a further 5% will be charged if a payment is more than 12 months late. This penalty will apply even if only one payment is late.

For annual payments such as Class 1a NIC or paye settlement agreements a 5% charge will apply if the payment is 30 days late. Further penalties of 5% will be charged if the payment is 6 months late and again if it is 12 months late. The first payment to which these penalties will apply is the Class 1a NIC due in July 2011.

We would point out that if you miscalculate the amount of payment due and subsequently make a correction then this will count as a late payment. It will therefore be even more important to calculate your payroll and CIS correctly in order to avoid a penalty. If you need any assistance with your payroll we have dedicated experienced staff who will be happy to provide a fixed quote for processing your payroll for you.

A series of ‘frequently asked questions’ giving more details of the new regime can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/paye-penalties-faqs.htm.

Should you need any further information please contact either Geoff Hill or John Davies.


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Ward Goodman please contact 01202 875900

Do you know where you are invested?

Simon Willcox's, Ward Goodman Financial Services Director found the below article useful & wanted to share it.

No, perhaps it’s time to spring clean your Portfolio

Did you know, for example, that if you are 30 years old, receive a monthly salary payment, and expect to retire at 65, that you only have 420 paydays left to save for retirement? A scary thought!!

And that conventional wisdom calculates that same 30-year-old needs to put aside 15% of their annual salary each year for the next 35 years to ensure that they have 50% of their final salary available post-retirement.

With these thoughts ringing in my head, I have put together a list of steps which are aimed at helping both new and seasoned investors make informed decisions about preparing for retirement...no matter how near or far away it seems.

For investors, the past year has felt like a long, hard winter: a nasty slog that we can't put behind ourselves fast enough. There's no telling whether the recent rebound is the start of something big or the equivalent of a summer's day in a London February. Nonetheless, it's still a good time to assess the damage that the bear market has wrought on your investments, get your financial paperwork in order, and develop an action plan to address any problem spots.

So what should be on your spring financial to-do list? I haven't addressed each and every important financial task, but here are some of the most important tasks you should focus on. I've rated each of the tasks by difficulty level.

Step 1: Organise your paperwork

Degree of difficulty: Moderate to difficult
With the volume of papers and junk mail coming in, keeping your home office or desk free of clutter is a daily battle. If you're winning that war and have a filing (and disposal) system that makes sense for you, give yourself a pat on the back and move on to the next task.

For the 96% of you who still need some help in the organisation area, here are some organisational tips: learn what is worth keeping and what is worth chucking; know how and where to store what you keep; create a directory of all your account details and advisers' contact details and give the directory to a trusted friend of relative in case of an emergency; stay on top of incoming mail; take advantage of technology, such as scanning documents and saving them to disk.

Step 2: Implement a strategy for incoming documents

Degree of difficulty: Easy
Once you've tamed the financial paperwork you already have, you also need to develop a strategy to keep incoming documents from getting out of control. Attending to your mail each day takes only a few minutes and goes a long way toward keeping you out of the mess you just dug yourself out of.

As you sort through your post, classify it into one of four groupings. Items for further perusal such as magazines and personal correspondence go in one pile, bills in another and financial statements in yet another. The largest pile is reserved for junk mail, which you'll need to further subdivide into two categories: items you can immediately recycle, such as envelopes, and items you'll need to shred first, such as anything with your personal information on it. (I interpret "personal" pretty conservatively and shred pretty much anything with my name and address on it.)

Step 3: Input your portfolio into an online monitoring tool

Degree of difficulty: Easy to moderate
If you've recently organised your financial statements, you should be in good shape to get started on this next task: speak to your adviser about inputting your portfolio into an online monitoring tool so they can track your performance and troubleshoot any problem areas. Although it takes a few minutes to do this, once you have your portfolio set up online it doesn't have to take a lot of maintenance and will save you a lot of trouble later.

Begin by collecting your most recent statements and sending these to your adviser for each of your holdings. You'll need the name of each holding as well as its most recent value.

Step 4: Identify trouble spots at the portfolio level

Degree of difficulty: Moderate
Once your adviser has entered your portfolio he or she can X-Ray the underlying funds and are able to see how much you hold in stocks (both foreign and domestic), bonds, and cash. He will also be able to see the geographic exposure of your stock holdings and how your portfolio is arrayed across various sectors and styles.

Step 5: Identify individual trouble spots

Degree of difficulty: Moderate to difficult
If your holdings generally hold up well to portfolio-level scrutiny, your adviser will turn his attention to your individual stocks and funds. He can begin by looking at performance, both relative and absolute, with a particular focus on performance over longer time periods.

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Ward Goodman please contact 01202 875900