The report resulting from the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices (the Taylor Review), ‘Good Work‘, was finally published on 11 July 2017. The Taylor Review’s primary focus was new ways of working, the ‘gig’ economy, worker rights and responsibilities, and employer freedoms and obligations. Although tax was not (formally at least) within its remit, it was inevitable that in compiling their report the Taylor Review would encounter issues of taxation… indeed, such…

The Conservative manifesto, ‘Forward, Together’, unveiled late last week by Theresa May, was notable rather less for reiterating commitments to traditional, small government, Conservative principles of ‘low tax’ and ‘better regulation’ and rather more for its embrace of social inclusion, identifying a “need [for] a partnership between the individual and the wider nation, between private sector and public service, and the strong leadership only government can provide”. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, most of the attention…

Alongside the almost complete reversal of recent cuts in the main rate of corporation tax (returning it to 26% by 2020-21 – a rate not seen since 2011 or, rather, the time of the last Labour government), the proposal to introduce a so-called ‘Robin Hood’ tax on financial derivatives (a proposal mired by its own complexity in Europe and described in the past by the Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as “madness”), and promises to…

A client asked me a pertinent question yesterday, along the lines of: “Do the pensions changes announced in the last Budget still stand given that they are not yet enshrined in legislation and Parliament is soon to be dissolved?” The short and unhelpful answer is: “It depends…”  But what exactly does it depend upon? By way of a reminder the main pensions changes relate to a reduction in the money purchase annual allowance, a new…