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PRO INSTALLER FEBRUARY 2015
PRO BUSINESS
@proinstaller1
Women win the
battle of the taxes
Women are more likely than men to send in their tax return on time,
a HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) analysis has revealed.
For every 10,000 tax
returns received last
year by HMRC from
men, 394 were after
the relevant deadline;
31 October for paper
submissions and 31
January for online
returns. This compares
to 358 late returns for
every 10,000 received
from women.
As well as a gender gap,
HMRC’s analysis showed
a significant difference in
filing behaviour between
age ranges. People aged
18 to 20 were the worst
offenders, with 1,085 in
every 10,000 filing late. At
the other end of the scale,
those aged 65 or over
were the most punctual, with only 155 out of
every 10,000 missing the
deadline. HMRC’s analysis
found that the older you
are, the more likely you
are to send in your tax
return on time.
In terms of differences
between workers in different industries, those in
the agriculture, fishing and
forestry industry are the
star performers, with just
109 in every 10,000 filing
late returns. Lawyers and
accountants came second
(219 late filers per 10,000),
with health and social
workers (262 per 10,000)
in third place. Workers
in the information and
communication industries
fared the worst (390 per
10,000), with administrative and support services
not far behind (388 per
10,000) and the construction industry the next
worst performing sector
(352 per 10,000).
Across the United Kingdom, taxpayers in Northern Ireland were the most
punctual (301 per 10,000),
followed by those in Wales
(346 per 10,000), England (374 per 10,000) and
Scotland (391 per 10,000).
The figure for the United
Kingdom as a whole was
372 late filers per 10,000.
Within the English regions, South West taxpayers were the least likely
to miss the deadline (299
per 10,000), followed by
the East Midlands (324 per
10,000), Yorkshire and the
Humber (337 per 10,000)
and the West Midlands
(344 per 10,000). By some
distance, the worst-performing region was
London (512 per 10,000),
followed by taxpayers in
the North East (380 per
10,000), North West (369
per 10,000), South East
(355 per 10,000) and the
East of England (346 per
10,000).
Help and advice on filing your return is available
from the GOV.UK website
at www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns
Do you agree with the
HMRC? Why not tell
us your experience’s at
Twitter @ProInstaller1
or contact madelaine@
clearview-uk.com
Small Businesses
paying for
“Worthless”
Legal fees
Thousands of small businesses throughout
the UK are paying premiums for legal
fees insurance that is largely worthless.
Many small firms take
out insurance against the
costs of fighting claims
at Employment Tribunals,
some as standalone policies and some as “add
ons” to employer liability
or other policies.
Insurance companies have
always written these policies
on the basis that they will only
cover claims that have more
than a 51% prospect of being successfully defended or
where their own advisors have
approved the employers actions
prior to the event, cases where
they assess the employer has
acted incorrectly will not be
covered.
Premiums for this type of
insurance before August 2013
were set to reflect the large
number of ill-conceived or
totally spurious Employment
Tribunal claims filed by disgruntled employees.
However, the rules for bringing claims to Employment
Tribunals changed in 2013. It
is now a requirement not only
for ex-employees to go through
Acas Early Conciliation before
they can lodge a claim; they
must also pay a fee of up to
£250 when they file the claim
and a further £950 before there
is a hearing. The effect this has
had on the number of claims
being lodged has been dramat-
ic; the overall number of claims
has fallen by 79%.
Peter Abraham of human
resource compliance advisers
HR4UK (www.hr4uk.com)
said:
“The reduction in the number
of claims means the risk for an
employer who has attempted to
comply with the law, of being
taken to an Employment Tribunal, for a misconceived claim is
now much lower than it was.
“What’s more, because there
are now costs to the employee
of bringing a claim, only cases
where the claimant is likely
to succeed are being pursued.
These are the very cases that
the insurance companies
believe show the employer
has less than a 51% chance of
success and they are therefore
much more likely to refuse
cover.
“These two factors together
mean that businesses are paying for insurance which is of
dubious benefit. Insurers have
generally not significantly, if
at all, reduced their premiums.
They are creaming in profits on
this area of business, especially as many small businesses
simply renew a policy without
reviewing its costs and benefits.”
Until recently, as part of its
services, HR4UK offered a
complimentary insurance to
clients covering the costs of
fighting Employment Tribunal
claims. Due to the changes that
have taken place they are no
longer doing so, saying that
they see insufficient benefit to
their clients in such insurance.
Instead they are providing free
representation in Acas Early
Conciliation negotiations and
Employment Tribunals using
their own expert team of employment lawyers and barristers. What is far more beneficial
to their clients is that they will
represent them regardless of
the c