There are around 700,000 new businesses starting up each year, all of which are required to register with HM Revenue & Customs for their different liable taxes. If a business takes on employees for example they will need to pay, PAYE, and if the business has a turnover exceeding £61,000 they then become liable for VAT. Businesses though need to register separately for each tax for which they are liable. This NAO report examines opportunities for the HM Revenue & Customs to further improve the help to new businesses, and looks at three areas: the compliance record of newly registered businesses; the process of registering for a tax; the guidance and advice provided by the Department. The report also highlights a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: the Department should target those newly registered businesses which are likely to benefit most, such as those entirely new to business and have least understanding of their tax obligations; new businesses should be encouraged to use the email alert service provided by Business Link; the Department should make guidance forms easier to understand and complete and also work more closely with other organisations such as tax agents, Business Link and financial institutions to coordinate help for new businesses in general; the introduction of a single online tax registration for businesses would be beneficial; and the Department should work towards a one stop telephone information system to cover all taxes.
This series covers the federal, state, and local regulations imposed on small businesses, with concise, friendly and up-to-the-minute advice on each critical step of starting your own business.
Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporation Tax raised around £120 billion in revenue in 2005-06. Some 1.8 million businesses are registered for VAT and 1.8 million companies registered to file Company Tax returns, which cover their liability for Corporation Tax. This report examines the performance of HM Revenue & Customs in securing and processing VAT and Company Tax returns from businesses which should submit them. It covers: getting the returns in on time; efficiency in dealing with the returns; customer service and the compliance burden on businesses making returns. Over the last three years the number of Company Tax returns filed on time has remained broadly stable at 77 to 79 per cent and VAT return compliance rate has stabilised at 85 per cent. The Department does not have readily available information on the total number of Company Tax returns outstanding from all previous years. It also does not know the potential tax liability arising from all missing returns. At least £1.5 billion of tax is in doubt from late and non-filed VAT and Company Tax returns. The level and the way in which penalties are applied for late filing for the two tax returns has not proved effective in further improving compliance. The report finds online filing of returns could improve efficiency, and welcomes reduction in staff costs and improvements in customer service. The NAO make a number of recommendations, which may be implemented quickly and at low cost, aimed at yielding efficiency savings, reduce tax at risk, and improve the Department's progress towards its targets.
This Committee of Public Accounts report on "The BBC's management of risk", sets out a number of recommendations on dealing with risk, and what the BBC's Executive Board should implement. Risk comes in different forms, from the risk of damaging the Corporation's reputation as a public service broadcaster to personal risk staff can experience when reporting from dangerous parts of the world. This report follows on from a National Audit Office report of the same title, and is available from the NAO website: http://www.bbcgovernorsarchive.co.uk/docs/reviews/nao_riskmanagement.pdf. Among the recommendations are: that BBC guidance needs a clearer delineation of responsibilities for risk management; that the main themes of risk management are not aligned with corporate objectives; that the BBC should update its assessments of the risks of working in hostile environments, as the abduction of journalist Alan Johnson showed; by failing to comply with its own Broadcasting Code, the BBC was fined by Ofcom over the a live phone-in competition on Blue Peter, and illustrates that some programme makers are ignoring the BBC's own editorial guidelines, exposing the corporation to reputational risk; the BBC has not related its risk to corporate objectives or assigned all risks to named owners; that BBC managers at all levels are not sufficiently engaged in the management of risk; there is still no fully satisfactory regime under which the BBC is accountable to Parliament for the value for money with which it spends licence fee payers money.
SmartStart Your Business Today! How to Start a Business in Colorado is your road map to avoiding operational, legal and financial pitfalls and breaking through the bureaucratic red tape that often entangles new entrepreneurs. This all-in-one resource goes a step beyond other business how-to books to give you a jump-start on planning for your business. It provides you with: Valuable state-specific sample forms and letters on CD-ROM Mailing addresses, telephone numbers and websites for the federal, state, local and private agencies that will help get your business up and running State population statistics, income and consumption rates, major industry trends and overall business incentives to give you a better picture of doing business in Colorado Checklists, sample forms and a complete sample business plan to assist you with numerous startup details State-specific information on issues like choosing a legal form, selecting a business name, obtaining licenses and permits, registering to pay taxes and knowing your employer responsibilities Federal and state options for financing your new venture Resources, cost information, statistics and regulations have all been updated. That, plus a new easier-to-use layout putting all the state-specific information in one block of chapters, make this your must-have guide to getting your business off the ground.
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, this report examined HM Revenue and Customs on getting VAT and Company Tax returns in on time, encouraging businesses to file tax returns online. The Department spends over £9 million a year on processing nine million VAT and Company Tax returns but one in five Company Tax returns and one in seven VAT returns are filed late or not at all. The Department lacks information on businesses that repeatedly file late and the links between late filing and other forms of non-compliance. The penalty regimes are variable and the fixed rate penalties for Company tax are low and not routinely applied, so the Department should also look at non-financial incentives such as tax clearance certificates. Less than 10% of companies' use online filing and the Department does not expect to meet its target of getting 50% of VAT returns filed online by 2007-8 and plans for mandatory online filing for Company Tax have been put back to 2010. Online filing would save the Department most of its current processing costs and be cheaper for businesses. Additional plans to reduce the administrative burden of filing taxes are unlikely to be implemented before 2011.
This report is the ninth edition of the OECD's Tax Administration Series. It provides internationally comparative data on aspects of tax systems and their administration in 59 advanced and emerging economies.