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9am Lowdown
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9am Lowdown: PwC 'deeply regrets' Oscars blunder

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28th Feb 2017
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This morning’s lowdown features more from the Oscars, updated fuel rates and MPs are set to investigate umbrella companies.

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PwC “deeply regrets” Oscar blunder

PwC said it “deeply regrets the mistakes” that caused the wrong film to be announced as the Best Picture winner during Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.

In a statement, PwC blamed breaches of its “established protocols” that led PwC partner Brian Cullinan to mistakenly hand Warren Beatty the back-up envelope for Actress in a leading role, instead of the best picture envelope.

“Once the error occurred, protocols for correcting it were not followed through quickly enough by Mr Cullinan or his partner,” the statement read.

“We are deeply sorry for the disappointment suffered by the cast and crew of “La La land” and “Moonlight”.

The statement comes after Cullinan deleted a tweet of Emma Stone sent moments before the best picture announcement.

After the event, the hashtag #Oscarfail was trending on Twitter and CBS TV chief exec Les Mooves said if they were his accountant he’d “fire them”.

He added: “The accountants have one job to do — that’s to give Warren Beatty the right envelope. That’s what these people are paid a lot of money to do.”

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MPs to examine umbrella companies practices

MPs will investigate whether temporary workers are being exploited by umbrella companies, according to the BBC.

The workers claim the umbrella companies that acts as a third party between a contractor an employee force staff to pay extra tax and administration. A BBC Yorkshire investigation heard workers complaints of the umbrella firms making a “shopping catalogue” of deductions from their pay slip, including holiday pay and paying both the employers and their own national insurance contribution. A supply teacher who spoke anonymously to the BBC said these umbrella companies are “pirates making money out my hard work”.

While umbrella companies are legal, an HMRC spokesperson said: “It is illegal for workers to pay the national insurance contributions of employers and HMRC cracks down on any abuse of PAYE rules."

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HMRC amends fuel rates after error

HMRC has amended the advisory fuel rates for March after the original update had an error.

The new rates that will take effect from March originally showed the petrol per mile for an over 2000cc engine size was 20p per mile when infact it had increased to 22p per mile.

Everything else remains unchanged. 

The updated rates from March are: 

Engine size Petrol - amount per mile LPG - amount per mile
1400cc or less 11 pence 7 pence
1401cc to 2000cc 14 pence 9 pence
Over 2000cc 22 pence 14 pence
Engine size Diesel - amount per mile
1600cc or less 9 pence
1601cc to 2000cc 11 pence
Over 2000cc 13 pence

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By rememberscarborough
28th Feb 2017 12:03

re PWC - and I thought it'd never be forgotten if I paid the payroll a day late...

Also, if HMRC are serious about the concept of umbrella companies they might want to look at the practice of civil servants being paid through limited companies that is exactly the same principle. Hypocrisy or the old boy's network...

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By Vaughan Blake1
28th Feb 2017 15:06

I wonder what Brian Cullinan and his sidekick do for the rest of the year? Yet another job my careers teacher omitted to mention existed!

It will not be forgotten until the end of time, rather like when I accidentally stuck a 1p rather than a £1 stamp on a letter to a client!

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