Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The announcement by Chancellor Philip Hammond that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) would revert to secondary preferential creditor status for taxes collected on its behalf in all insolvency situations will likely have a significant negative impact on lending to UK Plc, according to analysis by Duff & Phelps. In a return to the pre-Enterprise Act…
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HMRC is continuing its campaign of targeting restaurants and takeaways as financial stress makes tax evasion more tempting for smaller operators in the sector, says the accountancy and business advisory firm, BDO. According to BDO, restaurants and takeaways account for 26% (200 of 775)* of businesses ‘named and shamed’ by HMRC as ‘deliberate tax defaulters’ since…
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The Department for Education has confirmed it petitioned the High Court for Hadlow College to be placed into “education administration”, under the insolvency regime created by the Technical and Further Education Act 2017. The High Court is expected to respond on 22nd May. Insolvency practitioners BDO are understood to have been lined up as the…
Read moreNew research by fraud investigation technology provider HooYu has identified loopholes at Companies House that enables individuals to register as a director, to run businesses and to enable fraud and money laundering, even after they have been struck-off from holding company directorships. The analysis also uncovered over 500 so-called “chameleon” directors who have been disqualified…
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The latest statistics from the Valuation Office Agency’s ‘Check, Challenge, Appeal’ business rates system show a 97% drop in the number of businesses challenging their rates bills in the last two years in England, compared to the two years following the previous revaluation. Responding to the figures, Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) National Chairman Mike…
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There was a 12 percent increase in the number of county court judgments against all businesses in England and Wales in the first quarter of 2019, according to figures released by the Registry Trust. The total value of the 35,779 business CCJs was £107.2million, a rise of six percent compared to the same period of…
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The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has published its follow-up consultation for Confirmation of Payee (CoP) – an important tool to further protect people from Authorised Push Payment scams and prevent payments being accidentally sent to the wrong account. It is understood that this initiative will provide customers with better protection from authorised push payment (APP)…
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The Department for Transport has today has published the final report from the independent Airline Insolvency Review, which was chaired by Peter Bucks. The Transport Secretary Chris Grayling commissioned the review following the collapse of Monarch Airlines in October 2017, when 85,000 passengers were repatriated – in the UK’s largest peacetime repatriation operation – by…
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Companies will be better protected from fraud, under new Companies House reforms that will do more to safeguard the personal data of business owners and ensure the accuracy of the register. Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst has unveiled a substantial package of reforms to Companies House. With the clear aim of minimising the burden on law-abiding…
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KPMG has been fined £4million with one of its partners sanctioned in relation to its scrutiny of the Co-operative Bank’s accounts in 2009. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has imposed sanctions against KPMG Audit and its audit Partner Andrew Walker, following their admission of misconduct in relation to the audit of the financial statements of…
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An Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) investigation into HMRC’s Voice ID service was prompted by a complaint from Big Brother Watch about the department’s conduct. The investigation focused on the use of voice authentication for customer verification on some of HMRC’s helplines since January 2017. The ICO found that HMRC failed to give customers sufficient information…
Read moreOfgem has announced its strategic review of the microbusiness energy market to better understand and address the issues faced by microbusinesses. Ofgem’s analysis shows that market information is often inaccessible, resulting in customers paying high prices and struggling to make informed decisions. Microbusinesses play a central role in the UK economy. According to government data,…
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More than 1,000 businesses are flouting the law by not reporting how long they take to pay suppliers, according to an analysis of government data by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS). According to CIPS, on average large businesses pay almost a third of their invoices late with 15 per cent taking longer…
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