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 |