General

There is useful guidance published on GOV.UK that explains the do’s and don’ts for Standard Visitors to the UK. Visitors to the UK who are classed as a ‘Standard Visitor’ are allowed in the UK for tourism, business, study (courses up to 6 months) and other permitted activities.

Permitted activities include the following:

• for tourism, for example on a holiday or vacation;
• to see your family or friends;
• to volunteer for up to 30 days with a registered charity;
• to pass through the UK to another country (‘in transit’);
• for certain business activities, for example attending a meeting or interview;
• for certain paid engagements or events (a ‘permitted paid engagement’) as an expert in your profession, for example to give lectures or perform;
• to take part in a school exchange programme;
• to do a recreational course of up to 30 days, for example a dance course;
• to study, undertake a placement or take an exam;
• as an academic, senior doctor or dentist; or
• for medical reasons.

The following activities are not permitted for a Standard Visitor:

• undertake paid or unpaid work for a UK company or as a self-employed person, unless you are doing a permitted paid engagement or event;
• claim public funds (benefits);
• live in the UK for long periods of time through frequent or successive visits; or
• marry or register a civil partnership or give notice of marriage or civil partnership – you will need to apply for a Marriage Visitor visa.

The government’s Tipping Act is a step closer to coming into force, as the Code of Practice is published and laid before Parliament. The new Code of Practice will protect the tips of more than 2 million workers giving them a fair share of the tips received by a company.

Millions of UK workers are set to take home an estimated £200 million more of their hard-earned cash, as landmark legislation on tipping took a step towards coming into force.

The government introduced the Code of Practice on the fair and transparent distribution of tips that will have legal effect under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.

The updated Code of Practice will be statutory and have legal effect, meaning it can be introduced as evidence in an employment tribunal.

The Act and secondary legislation make it unlawful for businesses to hold back service charges from their employees, ensuring staff receive all of the tips they have earned.

The measures are expected to come into force on 1st October 2024, once they have been approved by Parliament.

Many hospitality workers rely on tips to top up their pay and are often left powerless if businesses do not pass on service charges from customers to their staff.

This overhaul of tipping practices is set to benefit more than 2 million UK workers across the hospitality, leisure and services sectors helping to ease cost of living pressures and give them peace of mind that they will keep their hard-earned money.

In a recent press release, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero confirmed that consumers are set to benefit from cheaper and more convenient energy deals as part of new measures to create a smart, flexible electricity system to help save money on bills. They said:

“New proposals set out in a recent consultation will introduce minimum requirements for cyber security and grid stability, and minimum product standards for energy smart appliances to give consumers confidence to accept smart devices and make it easier for them to benefit from cheaper bills. Electric heating appliances with the greatest flexibility potential – like heat pumps – could also be required to have smart functionality.

“Smart appliances enable consumers to manage their energy use to benefit from cheaper tariffs at times of low electricity demand, for example a smart charge point which waits for a period of low-demand overnight to charge the car. This will reduce the consumer’s bill while also ensuring that their car is ready to be used in the morning.

“By shifting some electricity use away from peak periods, this will ease pressure on the grid and reduce reliance on backup fossil fuel generation and the need for new infrastructure like pylons, helping to save up to £50 billion by 2050. The use of smart systems and flexibility could create 10,000 jobs and increase GDP by up to £1.3 billion by 2050. A further 14,000 jobs could be created by exporting the technology.”

A UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account can be used by eligible users to view and prove their immigration status online. This may be required to provide proof of your status to employers or higher education providers.

The service can also be used to update personal details or to check what rights you have in the UK, for example the right to work, rent or claim benefits.

You will have a UKVI if you have ever:

• applied to the EU Settlement Scheme;
• used the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app to prove your identity when applying for a visa;
• created one when applying for a visa (you will have received a UKVI account confirmation email); and
• created one to get access to an eVisa (an online record of your immigration status) – you will have received an email about this.

If you are unable to access your account, then you will need to recover your UK Visas and Immigration Account by calling the UK Visas and Immigration phone line on 0300 790 6268.

HMRC’s free tax app is available to download from the App Store for iOS and from the Google Play Store for Android. The latest version of the app includes updated functionality.

The app can be used to see:

• your tax code and National Insurance number;
• your income and benefits;
• your income from work in the previous 5 years;
• how much you will receive in tax credits and when they will be paid;
• your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) self-assessment;
• how much self-assessment tax you owe;
• your Child Benefit; and
• your State Pension.

The app can also be used to complete a number of tasks that usually require the user to be logged on to a computer. This includes:

• get an estimate of the tax you need to pay;
• make a self-assessment payment;
• set a reminder to make a self-assessment payment;
• report tax credits changes and complete your renewal;
• access your Help to Save account;
• using HMRC’s tax calculator to work out your take home pay after Income Tax and National Insurance deductions;
• track forms and letters you have sent to HMRC;
• claim a refund if you have paid too much tax;
• ask HMRC’s digital assistant for help and information;
• update your name and / or postal address;
• save your National Insurance number to your digital wallet; and
• choose to be contacted by HMRC electronically, instead of by letter.

HMRC has, for many years, looked to target businesses that deliberately undertake electronic sales suppression (ESS). ESS happens where a business deliberately manipulates its electronic sales records in order to hide or reduce the value of individual transactions. 

This type of fraud is hard to spot as it tries to reduce the recorded turnover of the business and the corresponding tax liabilities while providing what appears to be a credible and compliant audit trail. This can be done by misusing built in till functions or installing software specifically designed to suppress sales.

HMRC officers are continuing to target businesses across the country that are suspected of being involved in making, supplying or promoting ESS systems. These businesses can face fines of up to £50,000 and criminal investigations. HMRC is also actively targeting users of these systems who will also face having to pay back tax evaded, financial penalties and possible criminal convictions. HMRC has confirmed that they will continue to contact and target till fraud throughout 2024.

HMRC is also urging affected businesses to voluntarily come forward and use the online portal to disclose their undeclared sales and stop using ESS software immediately. If businesses do not come forward, HMRC may issue an assessment and open an investigation, and harsher penalties will apply.

In a recent press release the government confirmed the following policies to support household incomes from 1 April 2024.

1. The National Living Wage has officially risen from £10.42 an hour to £11.44. This marks a £1,800 annual boost to full-time workers’ pay packets. This means nobody over 21 will earn less than two-thirds of the average hourly wage increase – putting more money in the pockets of around 3 million of UK’s lowest paid workers.
2. Households will also save around £250 a year on average thanks to a drop in energy bills introduced by Ofgem. This marks a 12.3% fall from the previous quarter, which brings prices down to their lowest since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
3. An increase to the Local Housing Allowance means some of the poorest families on either Universal Credit or Housing Benefit will gain around £800 a year on average. 
4. Additionally, these changes run alongside the roll out of 15 hours of free childcare, which will save working parents an average of £3,450 a year – the first stage in the £8 billion childcare package that was announced by the Chancellor last year.

Clearly the recent increases in inflation have had a major impact on spending power and although the above measures are welcomed, the real increases in purchasing power are to some extent reduced by the continuing increase in prices.

HMRC has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown on plans to close the Self-Assessment, VAT and PAYE helplines from early April until September this year. HMRC has now confirmed that these helpline changes have been abandoned following feedback from many concerned stakeholders, including MPs, accountants and members of the public. This means that the helplines will remain open as usual for the time being.

However, these moves indicate that a significant shift towards online self-service options will become the norm in the longer term. HMRC has also said that they will continue encouraging customers to self-serve where possible and access the information they need more quickly and easily by going online or to the HMRC app, which is available 24/7.

HMRC’s Chief Executive said:

‘Making best use of online services allows HMRC to help more taxpayers and get the most out of every pound of taxpayers’ money by boosting productivity.

Our helpline and webchat advisers will always be there for those taxpayers who need support because they are vulnerable, digitally excluded or have complex affairs.

However, the pace of this change needs to match the public appetite for managing their tax affairs online.

We’ve listened to the feedback and we’re halting the helpline changes as we recognise more needs to be done to ensure all taxpayers’ needs are met, whilst also encouraging them to transition to online services.’

HMRC has issued an updated ‘news story’ to confirm that, where possible, new legal proceedings and pre-action letters can be served on the department using email instead of post. This measure was originally introduced in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The update confirms that this is a permanent change and not just limited to COVID-19 arrangements.

New legal proceedings in England and Wales to be served on the Solicitor for HMRC should be emailed to: newproceedings@hmrc.gov.uk. If you use email instead of hard copy, you must send the relevant documents to the same email address – whether or not an HMRC lawyer, paralegal or litigator has already been assigned to the case. HMRC may challenge any attempt to serve new legal proceedings on the department using a different HMRC email address.

Correspondence required to be sent to the Solicitor for HMRC in compliance with any pre-action protocol to the Civil Procedure Rules, including the Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review, can be emailed to: preactionletters@hmrc.gov.uk.

There is a different email address (expertadviceservice@hmrc.gov.uk) for the service of employment law claims on HMRC.

These email addresses are for the service of new proceedings and pre-action letters only. There is separate guidance if you wish to request a review of a tax decision by HMRC or appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber). 

Leaders from top comparison sites, RAC and The AA will be among those meeting the Energy Affordability Minister to help share new fuel price data and keep costs down for motorists. 

Price comparison sites and map apps will have access to this new data as part of the government’s PumpWatch initiative, which aims to drive down prices at the pumps. The scheme will look to make fuel prices, updated within 30 minutes of changes, available to the public by the end of this year. The move will further drive competition and place even more power back into hands of consumers and motorists to get the cheapest fuel available in their area.

The latest step follows the government’s plans and support for motorists in the Spring Budget 2024, as fuel duty is frozen for a further 12 months, extending the 5p fuel duty cut and cancelling any increase with inflation. This has saved the average car driver around £250 over the past 3 years and is worth £13 billion.

Working with The AA, Confused.com, Go.Compare, PetrolPrices.com and RAC, the government is making sure the freely available data will be simple and easy to understand. The data could be used by journey planning sites and in-car devices too, to help over 41 million drivers to help save money wherever they live in the UK. 

The government presses on with work to keep bringing down costs for hardworking families. The fuel duty cut extension, alongside maintaining fuel duty rates at their current levels for another year, will save families 7p a litre for petrol and diesel compared to previous plans.