Good morning and welcome to Thursday's 9am Lowdown. Here is the news.
News round up
Analysis by accounting firm Blick Rothenberg shows that the Treasury has so far raised as much has £2bn as a result of the 3% "landlord tax" – twice as much as initially expected. (The Telegraph)
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Up to 30,000 small businesses face large rates increases under a new “staircase tax” that treats different floors in the same building as separate premises. (The Times - paywall)
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“Getting the tax system right is harder than rhetorical flourishes about stopping avoidance and evasion,” says QC Jolyon Maugham in his latest blog. That’s why he argues the case for a new political party in his latest blog, stating that none of the current ones have anything to say on taxation. (Waiting for tax)
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Tesco is expected to pay out an average of £400 to more than 10,000 shareholders as it attempts to clean up the wreckage of its accounting scandal. (Evening Standard)
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Every government promises to simplify taxes. None succeeds. The Observer’s Philip Inman says that with more than 1,000 tax relief schemes more scrutiny is needed of schemes that are far too easy to set up. (The Guardian)
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Although the date of Autumn Budget 2017 has not yet been confirmed, The Treasury has opened the Budget representations portal “earlier than usual to allow more time for HM Treasury to note and consider representations”. (GOV.UK Budget representation guidance)
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New on AccountingWEB
Neil Warren explains why Sports Direct was entitled to appeal against HMRC’s VAT letter, and why the rules about distance selling were so relevant in this case.
Position papers outlining the UK’s negotiating approach to goods on the market and more were published in the past week. It prompted discussion and comment ahead of the third round of Brexit negotiations in the days ahead.
The Any Answers question of the day comes from Practice Partner who has a question about the mortgage charge on a dissolved company: What happens to a registered charge when a company is struck off?
Glen Feechan returns to the blog pages with an introduction to SUMPRODUCT and explains why spreadsheet users should use it.
With technological advancement comes disruption. Traditional employment opportunities will evolve. Silverfin asks on its industry update page, what’s your plan for when robots take over compliance work?
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Contributions from the AccountingWEB.co.uk editorial team.