Sent spinning by Carousel fraud. Now you can claim VAT - Andersons Solicitors Nottingham

It’s not often that the European Court of Justice is seen as a friend to businessmen in their disagreements with the taxman but a recent judgment may help win a few hearts and minds.

The court has ruled that traders unknowingly caught up in business transactions where fraud takes place somewhere along the chain should still be able to claim VAT.

The judgment rejected the argument put forward by HM Revenue and Customs that fraud tainted business transactions to such a degree that VAT should not be recoverable.

Carousel fraud – so called because it often involves a circular supply chain – has been increasing over the last few years costing the government millions in lost revenue.

The government’s response to help limit the losses has been to stop innocent firms from claiming VAT rebates, arguing that it’s no defence to say the firm didn’t know anything about the fraud.

The European Court however has rejected this argument and makes it quite clear that it’s unlawful for Revenue and Customs to effectively penalise an innocent trader for fraud committed by someone else.

The Revenue and Customs may have lost this battle but it’s unlikely they’ll give up that easily. Many experts believe they will now look for other ways to recover the lost revenue.

We shall keep clients up to date with any developments.

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Pension rights New legislation will come into force on 6 April.

Pension rights New legislation allowing people to build up their pension rights will come into force on 6 April.The Occupational Pension Schemes (Early Leavers: Cash Transfer Sums and Contribution Refunds) Regulations 2006 have been laid before Parliament and allow someone leaving a scheme with at least three months’ qualifying service to receive either a cash sum or a transfer to another scheme. At the moment, such employees usually only get a refund.

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Age discrimination - Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 consultation paper - Andersons Solicitors - Nottingham

Nearly 250 responses to the DTI’s Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 consultation paper have been published on the department’s website. A wide range of public and private sector bodies are represented, including Acas, the TUC, employers’ organisations, trade unions, churches, and educational establishments. The most appropriately-named is a specialist recruitment agency called Wrinklies Direct Ltd, whose response – along with 247 others – can be downloaded from www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/age_responses.htm

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Offshore workers - the House of Lords has ruled in Serco v Lawson.Serco

Someone who does all their work outside the United Kingdom can in some circumstances have an employment relationship allowing an unfair dismissal claim to be made through the UK courts, the House of Lords has ruled in Serco v Lawson.Serco – a UK company – employed Mr Lawson to work as a security operator at the RAF base on Ascension Island (which has no indigenous population). Although all the services were performed overseas, the House of Lords found that the close UK connections of both employee and employer gave Mr Lawson the right to claim.The House of Lords gave guidance about the circumstances in which an employee, either working temporarily overseas, permanently outposted, or ‘peripatetic’ (someone who moves between different countries) should be treated for deciding whether they qualify to bring a UK unfair dismissal claim.

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Family law team go from strength to strength with Emma Cross joining the team.

Nottingham firm Andersons Solicitors see star pupil Emma Cross switch departments to build on the firm’s Family department, which has seen significant growth since the arrival of Catherine Wenborn as Head of Department.

Emma has always had a keen interest in family law and in 2004 won an award for her strength and overall performance in the LPC family law papers.

Catherine Wenborn, Head of Family comments “Emma is a fantastic family lawyer and having her in the team gives us a great opportunity to really push ourselves and take the department to the next level. We had a great year last year with significant increases in new clients and new instructions, we’re hoping 2006 will be even better”.

Emma says on her move “This is a great move for me, I’m working in an area I’m very passionate about. It’s been an interesting time to move departments with the Civil Partnership Act coming into force. I’m able to get involved in a wide range of family work including; divorce and separation, children and contact disputes, violence in the home to name a few”.

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Contact Carly Williams, Marketing Manager by email cwilliams@andersonssolicitors.co.uk or Tel 0115 988 6716.

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That’s Asda price - £850,000 in compensation - Andersons Solicitors Nottingham

Supermarket giant Asda has been ordered by an employment tribunal to compensate some of its workers after it was judged to have illegally offered them inducements to give up their union rights.
The hearing in Newcastle was told that more than 300 employees at the company’s warehouse at Washington in County Durham were offered a 10 per cent pay rise if they left their union, the GMB, and ended collective bargaining.
The tribunal ruled that this breached the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act and ordered Asda to pay each worker £2,500 in compensation.
Employment law seems to get more complex each year and as seen in this case, even the biggest companies can fall foul of the regulations.
As with many facets of employer-employee relations, good legal advice at the outset can save thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds in the long term.
Asda says it is disappointed with the ruling and is considering an appeal. We shall inform clients of any developments in future bulletins. Email Andersons Solicitors

Fire regulations extinguished - for the time being - Andersons Solicitors Nottingham

Firms which aren’t yet ready to comply with the new fire safety reforms can breathe a sigh of relief as the date for implementing them has been postponed.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order was due to come into force in April this year but the government hasn’t been able to get the guidance documents ready in time. It’s now trying to catch up so it can announce the new start date.

Many firms already have the correct procedures in place to comply but those that don’t now have the chance to make up for lost time. The main effect of the changes will be to place more emphasis on fire prevention in the workplace and indeed all non-domestic premises.

Fire certificates will be abolished and will no longer have any legal status.
The responsibility for complying with the new regulations will rest with the “responsible person.” This will usually be the employer or otherwise whoever has control of the premises.

The responsible person will have to perform a fire risk assessment focussing specifically on the safety of employees or indeed anyone who may be at risk. The needs of the disabled or those with special needs will have to be taken into account.If you employ more than five people you must record the important firdings of the fire assessment.

We’ll bring details of the new compliance date as soon as it’s announced.

Wind of change promises to save firms billions - Andersons Solicitors Nottingham

A wind of change is blowing through Whitewall with the government seemingly falling over itself to be the businessman’s friend. It wants to cut red tape, save billions of pounds and generally make life easier for firms throughout the country.

It’s all part of the much vaunted Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill which aims to cut costs to business by £12billion.

The Bill should bring several benefits. The volume of information requested by different agencies should be reduced by cutting the number of regulators down to seven “super” regulators.

This should put an end to getting repeated requests for the same information from different departments.

It’s not all plain sailing though. Penalties for breaching regulations could be increased.

It means that, although some of the more burdensome red tape may be unravelling, it will now be more important than ever to comply with the regulations that remain. Firms would be well advised to start checking their procedures now and implement any necessary changes.

This will be doubly important if you have fallen foul of inspectors in the past. Under the new system, the government is moving to risk-based inspection and enforcement. In practice it will mean that firms with poor compliance records are given a tougher time facing more inspections.

It will also be more important in future to keep up with changes in the regulations. As part of its plan to streamline the operation, the government is giving Whitehall departments the power to change non-controversial regulations without them being debated in parliament.

It means the changes might not be as well publicised as in the past leaving firms in danger of failing to comply with a new regulation, or continuing to comply with a requirement that has been removed. Either way, time and money could be wasted.

Whether the proposed changes end up making a real difference that employers will notice in their every day business remains to be seen.

Ironically, in the short term it means that firms will have to pay more attention than ever to compliance to make sure they are up to date and not missing out on any improvements or cost-cutting measures.

Money laundering rules go but firms can’t relax - Andersons Solicitors - Nottingham

Money laundering rulebook goes but firms can’t relax

The Financial Services Authority has accepted the feedback it’s been getting from the industry it regulates and abolished its own rules on money laundering.

But the change doesn’t remove the responsibilities of regulated firms to do everything possible to avoid being used to legitimise the proceeds of crime.

As an Authority spokesman was quick to point out, “firms won’t be able to sit back and take it easy.”

They will still have to report any suspected money laundering operations, carefully check the identity of prospective clients and they will still need to have money laundering officers.
The new approach follows the Authority’s consultation exercise with the financial services industry last year when the response was overwhelmingly in favour of removing the rules.
The change is perhaps something of a mixed blessing. Companies will be pleased that they no longer need to adhere rigidly to the Authority’s regulations. On the other hand, there is no rulebook to fall back on and so it puts more responsibility on senior management of regulated companies.
They will have to ensure their own internal checks against money launderers are tight enough and carried out properly
Regulated firms will need to have a money laundering code of practice in place by August.

Work and families - Employment Law _ Andersons Solicitors

New draft regulations dealing with the Government’s family-friendly policies have been published and are now out for consultation until 18 April 2006. The changes include:
the introduction of ‘keeping in touch’ days, so that where employees and employers agree, a women on maternity leave can go into work for a few days, without losing her right to maternity leave or a week's statutory pay;
extending the right to request flexible working to ‘carers’.
The drafts can be downloaded from the DTI website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/hot_topics.htm

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TUPE consultation warning - Employment Law_Anderson_Solicitors

Employers are obliged to consult with the workforce over any measures that may be taken arising out a forthcoming TUPE transfer. Compensation for failure to do this is paid by the new employer (although under the new TUPE regulations, the new employer will be able to recover much of the compensation from the old employer).Under the rules, there is a maximum award of 13 weeks’ pay per affected employee. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled, in Sweetin v Coral Racing, that the 13 weeks’ pay should be awarded to each employee as standard (in respect of failure to consult), unless there are mitigating circumstances. This evidences the courts determination to ensure that employers comply with the spirit and letter of the consultation legislation.

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Expired disciplinary warnings - Employment Law_Andersons Solicitors

An expired disciplinary warning cannot be taken into account when deciding whether to dismiss, the Scottish Court of Session has ruled in Diosynth v Thomson, a case involving an employee’s dismissal following a chemical explosion in which someone died.The fatal accident occurred five months after Mr Thomson’s written warning following an earlier incident had expired. He was dismissed on the basis that he was deemed incapable of following safety instructions even when brought to his attention in a disciplinary context.However, the Court of Session upheld the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s finding of unfair dismissal as it was by definition unreasonable to rely on an expired warning.

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