FROM THE PAPERS
Synopsis: Short summaries of articles we think you will find useful from some of the weekends broadsheets. At the end of each summary is a link to take you directly to the relevant article. Please see Helpful Hints at the end of the bulletin.
Date posted: Monday, May 12, 2014
ARTICLES
Financial Times:” Pension plans could hit small business”. An independent body has raised concerns with government plans to introduce protections for workplace pension savers, warning they do not fully spell out the cost of the intervention for small business.
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Financial Times:” Employers target senior staff for pension transfers”. Senior executives are being targeted by employers seeking to cut the cost of their company pension bills ahead of any ban on transfers out of ‘gold-plated’ final salary schemes.
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Financial Times:” Take That star among investors facing big tax bill after ruling”. About a thousand investors face an estimated £70m of losses after a tax tribunal on Friday ruled that the partnerships in which they invested amounted to a tax avoidance scheme.
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Financial Times:” HMRC tax debt recovery proposals raise concerns”. HM Revenue & Customs has proposed an extension of its powers to allow unpaid tax to be seized directly from individual savings accounts, including stocks and shares Isa’s.
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The Times:” Mutuals exploit tax breaks to boost profits “. Building societies are in effect pocketing some of the tax breaks available to cash Isa savers, research shows.
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Times: “Fears at plan for tax raids on accounts”. The taxman could soon have the power to recover unpaid tax by raiding bank accounts, under proposals attacked by MPs.
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The Times:” Called to Account: Be afraid, the taxman raideth”. Revelations about catastrophic errors and day-to-day incompetence have long dominated coverage of HM Revenue & Customs.
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The Times:” Cameron hits out at aggressive tax avoiders”. David Cameron has joined a tide of criticism against Gary Barlow after a judge ruled that the pop star was part of a giant tax avoidance scheme.
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The Times:” Gary Barlow must repay millions of avoided tax”. Gary Barlow and two other members of Take That face having to pay tens of millions of pounds to the Revenue after a court decided yesterday that they were members of a massive tax avoidance scheme.
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The Times:” Thousands of callers ‘ignored by HMRC’ “. HM Revenue and Customs is functioning in crisis mode, with thousands of calls left unanswered and investigators cherry-picking the easiest cases, a whistleblower has claimed.
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The Times:” Revenue’s error led to £1.5m tax bill”. What a difference two decimal places can make — especially on a tax demand. Last week a Times Money reader on a modest income got a nasty shock when he opened a letter from Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to find a demand for more than £1.5 million, plus £77,000 in late payment charges.
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The Times:” How to enjoy freedom of pension reform”. The pension’s freedom promised in the budget has generated excitement — and confusion. Most people have applauded the reforms that will enable them to use their pension as they see fit from next April. However, three out of 10 people surveyed by Duncan Lawrie Private Bank said they did not know what they would do when the time came to decide whether to buy an annuity or manage their finances themselves.
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HELPFUL HINTS
1. LINKS TO ARTICLES:
We have now provided direct links to the articles referred to in the article. These can be accessed by click on the “To go directly to the article click here” at the end of each article summary
2. REQUIREMENT TO SUBSCRIBE TO SITES:
As some Opus Gold users will be aware, many of the broadsheet newspapers that are traditionally covered in our From the Papers bulletin, are changing (or have changed) their free online access to articles.
Currently the Financial Times and Weekend Financial Times only allows access to view 8 articles a month free, then requiring the user to subscribe to their online service. From 1 July 2010 The Times, Saturday Times and Sunday Times articles are no longer available for free online. Instead a daily or monthly fee will have to be paid to access the articles.
We are aware of the inconvenience this will cause to our users. Unfortunately, due to the stringent copyright rules enforced by the newspapers we are not allowed to copy the articles onto our bulletin to make them available to Opus Gold users, thus our only option is to put a direct link to the article on the newspapers own website.
Although we will continue to produce From the Papers bulletins linking to these articles, users should be aware that access to many will now be blocked unless a personal subscription to the newspapers site is taken.
Once again we apologise for this inconvenience but this is something outside of our control.
QUICK LINKS
FINANCIAL TIMES, TIMES + SUNDAY TIMES, TELEGRAPH + SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN + GUARDIAN WEEKLY + MONEY OBSERVER + OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT + INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY, SCOTSMAN + SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY + EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS, DAILY MAIL + MAIL ON SUNDAY + (LONDON) EVENING STANDARD + THIS IS MONEY.
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