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Sheer unworkable rubbish
but a rosy future for those in the myriad of consultancy firms that will be specialising in compliance.
May be unworkable rubbish
But it's a serious enough bit of legislation and unless you have adequate procedures in place as a defence your company is open to a costly and possibly reputation damaging challenge.
It's another nail in the coffin of free enterprise and begs the question why would anyone set up a business in the private sector, what with being an unpaid tax collector with fines for getting a complicated and confusing mess of legislation wrong, Working time Directive, Equality provisions, compulsory pension contributions (is this another tax) coming up, and the myriad of other red tape issues which are too numerous to mention.
once again the bureaucrats have failed
is there a de minimis level here or in the MLR rules - there should be
IR35 was/is just as mad! New madness makes "tipping" illegal ...
IR35 was/is just as mad, especially as its wording could be interpreted in a number of ways, as the 2008 2-part "IR35 Lottery" thread shows!
This new UK madness seems to me to be even more restrictive than corresponding "anti-Bribery" legislation in USA. Why? Do the legislators want to weaken UK GDP performance still further? [For example IR35 so weakened one-man contracting bands that apparently some cynical larger consultancies had - in my opinion - an incentive to spin out large IT projects at the inevitable expense of the taxpayer like you when the large IT project over ran!]
The petty fogging HMRC "it's the legislation" excuse for a £100 fine for military taxpayers abroad is equally nonsensical - shouldn't these brave people be protected by law/SI drafted by HMRC/ HMRC extra statutory concession??
QUESTION to "CHEW OVER" ABOUT THIS 2010 BRIBERY ACT: Doesn't this 2010 Act make "tipping" an illegal action by a satisfied diner, who just happens to wish to encourage good service when s/he next visits that restaurant??
[Is the answer just cash tips, and no refund by employer? What about taxis?]
The satisfied diner
Let's not get carried away here. Basically a bribe is a payment, in money or in kind, to someone for acting improperly - see s1 Bribery Act 2010.
It might be a payment in advance to induce the recipient to act improperly, or a payment after the event for acting improperly.
A waiter (or taxi driver or whoever) who does his job well is not 'acting improperly' and so a tip for good service is not a bribe.
David
"improperly" and "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"?
Thanks David - so I can carry on tipping as and when, and all such tipping should be noted in the accounting records presumably!
But isn't the word "improperly" just a subjective thing depending one's culture and one's cultural values in our now very multi-cultural United Kingdom, OR is it unambiguously defined in the 2010 Act?
HENCE: I note that the Act also goes on to say regarding activity/actions overseas: "In deciding what such a person would expect in relation to the performance of a function or activity where the performance is not subject to the law of any part of the United Kingdom, any local custom or practice is to be disregarded unless it is permitted or required by the written law applicable to the country or territory concerned", and I ask you how can it be sensible to disregard "any local custom or practice" when the general advice is "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" AND/OR when "the written law applicable to the country or territory concerned" is silent?