The Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Bill, which was presented to Parliament in 2017, is now awaiting Report Stage in the House of Commons. Although the Bill is a Private Members’ Bill, it has the full support of the government. The Bill provides a right for employed parents to be absent from work for two

The rent-a-room scheme is a set of special rules designed to help homeowners who rent-a-room in their home. The limit increased to a generous £7,500 from 6 April 2016 and remains at the same level for 2018-19. The government is currently examining the design of the scheme to explore whether the rules provide the right incentives

When Croatia joined the EU in 2013, the UK and other EU member states were able to restrict the access that Croatian citizens had to their labour markets for a maximum of seven years. The UK is one of a few EU countries which applied such measures. The restrictions have meant that, unless an exemption

A PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA) allows employers to make one annual payment to cover all the tax and National Insurance due on small or irregular taxable expenses or benefits for your employees. The expenses or benefits included in a PSA must be defined as one of the following: minor – e.g. a small birthday present

The following key changes to employment law will come into force in April 2018: The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2018 will increase the national minimum wage (NMW) and national living wage (NLW) rates from 1 April 2018. The NLW for workers aged 25 or over will increase to £7.83 per hour, the NMW standard

The Climate Change Levy (CCL) is chargeable on the industrial and commercial supply of taxable commodities for lighting, heating and power by consumers in industry, commerce, agriculture, public administration, and other services. The levy does not apply to taxable commodities used by domestic consumers, or by charities for non-business use. HMRC has recently updated the

The government has announced that the employer-operated childcare voucher scheme will remain open to new entrants for a further six months, i.e. until October 2018. The childcare voucher scheme, also called employer-supported childcare (ESC), was due to close from 6 April 2018 and be replaced by the government-backed childcare payments scheme, also called tax-free childcare

The government has named and shamed a further 179 employers for underpaying their workers the national minimum wage (NMW) or national living wage (NLW).  The government’s 14th “naming and shaming” list covers more than 9,000 UK workers, and means they will now collectively receive £1.1 million in back pay. As well as recovering the back

As you would expect, the Spring Statement delivered by the Chancellor Philip Hammond, to parliament on 13 March 2018, was peppered with party political jibes no doubt intended to lift the spirits of his own party and dismay the opposition parties. There was very little “promised” in terms of new tax or other strategic items

The Rural Fuel Duty relief scheme provides support for motorists in remote areas (where pump prices are significantly higher than the UK average) by cutting fuel duty by 5p per litre. The scheme currently applies to the sale of unleaded petrol, diesel, biodiesel, bioblend and bioethanol blend in the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern