Search

The article informs that business groups are welcoming the possibility of specialist training for tax inspectors, to improve the take-up of research and development tax credits for software developments. The British government has agreed to work with the industry to establish whether extra training would help solve the problems, according to a report on tax credits and innovation published by the Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs this week, alongside the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report. Consistent application of the tax credit is important not just for companies investing in software development specifically, but also for all businesses conducting development that has a software component.

The article reviews the outcome of Great Britain's universal credit, a reform combining six welfare programmes into one including tax credits. It explores the commitment of the government to carrying on with universal credit that streamlined benefits into one monthly payment. Universal credit is recognized for enabling people to get jobs than the old welfare system.

Hammond makes first appearance in Parliament since taking over The new U.K. chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond, said he'll wait until his end-of-year policy statement to Parliament before announcing any new tax and expenditure measures following Britain's vote to leave the European Union. [Extracted from the article]

Focuses on the financial issues concerning education in Great Britain. Controversies associated with tuition fee exemptions; Implications of taxpayers' subsidies for education; Problems posed by the plan of universities to charge higher tuition fees.

The author presents her views on the More Affordable Childcare program of the government of Great Britain. She praises a proposal on giving tax breaks on childcare for working parents. She added that proposals to the childcare program could give parents a way to access childcare funding and provide the government control of the funding going to providers.

The article offers information on the childcare element of the working tax credit (WTC) in Great Britain. The element can be a source of support in helping parents with childcare cost. Nursery owners can help improve occupancy figures by raising awareness to meet childcare fees. The amount that can be claimed by a parent is based on circumstances and income and up to 80 percent of childcare costs can be covered by the childcare element of the WTC. Actions that can be taken by nurseries with regard to WTC are outlined.

The author reflects on the need for policymakers to support the financial services industry in order for the British economy to recover. He mentions that there is a need to prop up spending in order not to experience again the Great Depression of the 1930s. He stresses that the government has supported the financial system through guarantees and revamping the Reserve Bank's market operations. He asserts that the government can provide what they need through tax cuts and infrastructure projects.

The article reports that an error that guaranteed funding for flagship projects had been agreed to without legal permission. According to the article, the error consisted of 29 of Great Britain's Department for Children, Schools, and Families contracts that totalled £35 million. Among the contracts affected included those for the programs the Children's Plan consultation, Byron Review, and Together for Children. The concerns about funding under the Education Act 2002 are discussed.

The article focuses on the £37 million payments written off by Great Britain's Treasury. This could be attributed to problems with the tax credits information technology (IT) system. The National Audit Office (NAO) report identified gaps in the testing regime leaving flaws with the system undetected. It has been stressed that some testing time was cut from development to meet the technical requirements deadline. Moreover, the joint Revenue and Customs department is committed for improvements.

Focuses on the warning for unpopular British universities on reliance to taxpayers' money. Implication for the passage of the higher education bill proposing to create an Office for Fair Access with powers to intervene in a univesity financial affairs; Role of the Higher Education Funding Council for England; Assistance for the recovery of the institution.

The author reflects on the public spending cuts of the government Great Britain in light of the global financial crisis. He questions the 2013 implementation of the 10% tax cuts on all profits derived from patents. He suggests that the government should provide continued stability for manufacturers that are experiencing difficulties due to the economic crisis. He states that public spending cuts is a good idea but it should not affect the budgets allotted for healthcare, higher education and science and research.

The article informs that the British HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is threatening to sue Electronic Data Systems Corp. unless it steps up compensation payments for failures in its information technology (IT) support for the tax credits scheme, which led to tens of millions of pounds in overpayments. Paul Gray, chairman of HM Revenue, said that his officials had carefully archived "millions of relevant documents" in preparation for a court case he hoped would not happen. It is stated that the tension between the two sides comes after they signed a controversial deal in November 2005.

The article reports that Chancellor of the British Exchequer, Alistair Darling, has said that research and development tax credits is important for high-tech innovation in Great Britain. He said that the credits were essential in helping to get academic ideas out of the universities and laboratories but any future decisions would have to wait for his first Budget or pre-Budget report.

The article reports that the biggest compensation deal agreed between the British government and a computer supplier, over tax credit IT problems, will take U.S. company Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) more than 100 years to pay off in full. EDS has paid only about £250,000 of £26.5m owing on a £71.2m settlement agreed in late 2005. HM Revenue and Customs can take EDS to court if it does not receive the full settlement. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has criticized the settlement and the secrecy surrounding it.

The article reports that according to Great Britain's House of Commons Treasury Committee, a compensation deal for IT problems with the tax credit system agreed between outsourcer EDS and HMRC has the appearance of impropriety, if not the fact. The fact that up to 26.5m pound of the 71m pound compensation deal was contingent on EDS winning new contracts with the government was first revealed in the journal "Computer Weekly" in April 2006. It highlights the MPs' frustration at the confidentiality agreements signed by HMRC and its suppliers. Such clauses hinder the wider public sector in learning lessons. The existence of a confidentiality requirement makes it impossible for the house to assess what happened in this particular case, and to seek to draw broader lessons from it about the problematic area of government IT contracts.

The article reports that according to Great Britain's House of Commons committee, the government has no real idea how much IT failures contributed to the tax credit debacle that saw claimants overpaid by 1.8bn pound in 2004-2005. The Treasury Committee was damning about HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) awareness of how its computer problems contributed to the overpayment. Without this knowledge, the committee said, HMRC cannot expect to improve the running of the tax credit system. In July 2003, the government blamed computer problems for the majority of the failures during the introduction of the tax credit system that went live in April that year. However, paymaster general Dawn Primarolo, the government minister responsible for HMRC, told the Treasury Committee earlier this year that computer problems had largely been resolved.

The article reports that the company HM Revenue and Customs spent £15m last year trying to sort out problems caused by incorrect payments under the tax credit system. The government slipped out the cost in a written answer before the House of Commons broke up for the summer, last week. Labour MP Frank Field said, it is difficult to defend the tax credit system as a targeted benefit when £1 in every £6 is wrongly allocated. Major software problems and technical difficulties have compounded the problem for many families on low incomes. It is argued that ongoing media coverage about the problems with tax credits and self assessment highlights the fact that if the data being processed is incorrect, the output will also be incorrect, however good the actual processing.

Reports on the worsening tax credit problems in Great Britain. Prevalence of overpayments to claimants for every tax credit awarded; Figures representing the surge of administration costs of the tax credit systems; Efforts undertaken to resolve tax expenditure problems.

This article reports that the R&D tax credits scheme introduced by the government four years ago, could play a key role in helping Great Britain attract and retain R&D work in the face of international competition. Stephen Bold, managing director of Sharp Laboratories Europe, said the credits, which return 25 per cent of the tax large companies pay on R&D-related expenditure, had enabled Sharp to recruit between four and five new people for its silicon on glass research. David Cobb, head of R&D tax services at financial services firm Deloitte, said the tax credit scheme has not been in place long enough to have any measurable effect, and has suffered from problems in how what constitutes as R&D is assessed.

The disastrous introduction of the government's tax credits systems was caused by an unrealistic timetable and a lack of contingency planning, according to Great Britain Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Edward Leigh. His comments follow the publication of a damning PAC report last week. In August 2003 the Department of Work and Pensions estimated that the level of over-payments under the old tax credits schemes was between 10% and 14% by value, or £ 510m-£ 710m. The new scheme and IT systems caused problems for several hundred thousand claimants who were not paid on time, and for employers who made some payments, the committee said. The committee found that the department should have been more realistic in fixing the timetable and assessing the resources needed for setting up and testing new tax credit systems.

Reports that the British government has asked the Local Government Association (LGA) to limit council tax benefit subsidy. Penalty on local authorities which increase their council tax about a ministerial set guideline; Position of the LGA regarding the issue; Shift in the costs of the subsidy.