Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban MP has announced that the annual allowance for tax-privileged pension saving will be reduced from £255,000 to £50,000, and the lifetime allowance will be reduced from £1.8 million to £1.5 million. This will replace the complex proposal legislated for by the last Government in the Finance Act 2010. This measure will raise £4 billion per annum in steady state and will help reduce the record Budget deficit that [...]

Litigation in the UK is getting cheaper. Fundamental changes to the procedure for claims in the Patents County Court (“PCC”), which (despite its name) hears claims relating to all types of intellectual property, have been implemented with effect from 1 October 2010. This will create a simplified process for resolving lower value and less complex IP disputes than are traditionally heard in the High Court. An important change is the introduction into the PCC of [...]

The standard rate of VAT is currently 17.5 per cent but will be increased to 20 per cent on 4 January 2011. For any sales of standard-rated goods or services that you make on or after 4 January 2011 you must charge VAT at the 20 per cent rate. If you have a cash business and calculate your VAT using the VAT fraction you must use the VAT fraction of 1/6 on your standard-rated VAT [...]

AST is most popular form of tenancy agreement in letting residential property. The Government has increased the AST rent threshold from 25 K per annum to 100 K per annum with effect from 1 October 2010. The legislation does not provide for any transitional arrangements. It is not ‘retrospective’ as such, but will affect all existing and new tenancies from 1 October. All the existing tenancies or the tenancies created on or after 1 October [...]

Agricultural tenancies (agreed since 1 September 1995) are also recognized as farm business tenancies. It is important to qualify for a farm business tenancy that at least one of the tenanted land must be farmed throughout the life of tenancy and the tenancy must complete one of the two conditions: • It is the statutory duty of the landlord and tenant to serve notices on each other before the start of agricultural tenancy with reference [...]

Contract for service means contract for a job by self employed person. While he or she may hire others to carry out (or help) in the work, he or she is solely responsible for the satisfactory completion of the job. Contract for service governs and regulates the relationship between contractor and client. There is no statutory definition of contract for service .In order to determine the nature of contract for service, it is necessary to [...]

Stock transfer form is used to make a private transfer of shares between two parties. In order to validly transfer its shares in the company, the shareholder needed to execute a stock transfer form The stock transfer form / stock form is one of the essential documents used following incorporation of a company. The Stock Transfer Form allows you transfer the legal ownership of company shares to other party. It is appropriate for use when [...]

Section 8 notice of the Housing Act 1988 is used to terminate the assured shorthold tenancy when the tenant violates the terms laid down in the tenancy agreement. There are 17 grounds on the basis of which landlord may seek possession before the fixed term of tenancy has come to an end. Before applying for the order of the court with reference to eviction of the tenant, the landlord must serve the section 8 to [...]

A new fast-track procedure for approving international patent applications that will cut waiting times by more than a year has been launched. Innovation is one of the main driving forces for Britain’s economic recovery. Delays in dealing with patent applications prevent firms from expanding and creating new jobs The new fast-track procedure will make it quicker for business to turn innovation and ideas into products and jobs The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) introduced the scheme [...]

Statutory Instrument – 22/01/2010 The main effect of these draft regulations is to implement the government’s previously announced intention to give new mothers the right to transfer the second 6 months of their 12 months maternity leave entitlement to the father. Statutory Maternity Pay (£123.06 per week, rising to £124.88 in April 2010, payable for 9 months in total) will effectively continue even if part of the 9 months relates to this “transferred” leave. Under current law men [...]