Good morning and welcome to this week’s 9am Lowdown which features RBS, the ICAEW, Facebook and a new HMRC investigation.
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RBS squeezed struggling businesses
Leaked documents reveal that Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) secretly tried to profit from struggling businesses.
According to a BBC Newsnight report the bank bought assets cheaply from failing businesses it claimed to be helping.
The leaked documents support allegations from three years ago by the government's then entrepreneur in residence Lawrence Tomlinson.
RBS has said it let some small business customers down in the past, but denied it deliberately caused them to fail.
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ICAEW applies for more legal services
The ICAEW has applied to the Legal Services Board to become an authorised regulator and licensing authority for various reserved legal activities as set out in the Legal Services Act 2007.
Over the summer, following consultation, it applied for the following legal activities:
- conduct of litigation
- rights of audience
- reserved instrument activities
- notarial services
- administration of oaths
In relation to the first three it is restricting the scope of its potential regulatory and licensing role to taxation services only.
In August 2014 the Institute was designated as an approved regulator and licensing authority of probate services.
The detailed application is available here.
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BBC stars face HMRC investigation
More than 100 BBC presenters, as well as staff at other broadcasters, are under investigation by HMRC over claims they have not paid enough income tax and NICs.
According to a report in The Independent they may face demands for unpaid taxes from between 2006 and 2013 if they are found to have incorrectly defined themselves as self-employed.
Back in July the BBC revealed that it had moved 85 of its stars onto staff contracts.
There is no suggestion that any of them deliberately tried to avoid paying tax or did anything illegal.
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Facebook gets £11m tax credit
Facebook UK ended last year with an £11.3m credit to offset against future tax payments just months after vowing to contribute more tax.
Despite a worldwide profit of US$6.19bn, accounts for the British holding company show that it ended the year with a £11.3m tax credit, compared to a charge of £4,327 in the prior year, thanks to accounting rule changes.
The credit is the result of the social media company being able to offset £15.5m of payments linked to its bonus scheme.
According to The Telegraph the disclosures are likely to reignite the row over the amount of tax paid by large US multi-nationals in the UK.