Businesses

Administration of Troncs
The long-running series of disputes between employers in the hospitality industry and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) concerning the taxation of employees’ tips and their National Insurance (NI) status seems to have been concluded by the issue of new...
Advice on Acquisitions Deductible
One common area of dispute between companies and the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is that of deductibility of expenses. One of the hottest areas of dispute is often whether an expense is a trading expense (deductible as part of the day-to-day running costs...
Age Discrimination - Be Prepared
There are currently 20 million people aged 50 and over in the UK and the figure is expected to reach 27 million by 2030. On 1 October 2006, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations came into effect. This legislation has made it unlawful...
Are You Data Friendly
Many businesses regard the Data Protection Act 1998 as something that merely requires a lot of form filling and the payment of fees, but there is a lot more to it than that. The purpose of the Act is to protect a person's right to...
Business Property Relief - More Traps for the Unwary
Most business people know that for family businesses there are generous Inheritance Tax (IHT) reliefs, which generally operate to make assets used in the business exempt or partially exempt from IHT. The reliefs take various forms, but are collectively known...
Business Tenancies What is a Business
The question as to what sort of organisations can be regarded as businesses came before the courts in a case involving a not-for-profit company which had failed to give the required notices to protect their tenancy under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954....
Can We Stop Them
Restrictive covenants (clauses which are normally found in contracts of employment and partnership agreements, which restrict the right of a person to compete with his or her firm) have always been a difficult area of law. The courts are able to...
Cancer in the workplace
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) has recently been amended so that all forms of cancer are classified as “disabilities” within the meaning of the Act. Employers should be aware that the DDA now covers people living with and...
Changes to Family Friendly Legislation
The Work and Families Act introduces measures intended to give more choice to families attempting to balance work and caring responsibilities. It imposes significant new obligations on employers. The period of statutory maternity...
Changes to Statutory Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
The Government is keen to promote alternative ways of settling workplace disputes. From October 2004 employers and employees will be required to follow statutory minimum procedures to make sure that disputes are discussed at work. Not only should...
Collecting Your Debts - a Brief Guide
If a business cannot recover a debt from a customer after the normal credit control procedures are exhausted then it will need to consider taking further action to recover the sum due. Mediation with the debtor, involving negotiation through a third party,...
Commerical Tenants: Word of Warning
With the proposed changes to landlord and tenant law, tenants may be inclined to adopt a more casual attitude to events as their lease term ends, even if they have given notice that they will not renew. Whatever else is done, tenants should be...
Company Formation Checklist
You may have come across advertisements which make forming a company sound very easy, but before you go ahead there are some serious issues to think through. If you have decided that a company is the best vehicle for your new venture then here is a...
Compensation for Loss of Light
Following a recent case in which a dispute regarding a property owner’s right to light was unexpectedly dealt with by the granting of an injunction against a developer, a more recent case has offered guidance on how much compensation might be payable...
Compromise Agreements - Tax Position Clarified
A compromise agreement is an agreement made between an employer and an employee who is having their contract of employment terminated. It sets out the terms under which the termination will take place and contains a provision that the employee will receive a...
Considering Outsourcing
These days more and more processes are being outsourced (run by external contractors under a service agreement) by more and more businesses. It is particularly common to outsource IT functions and telephone call management. Outsourcing can offer...
Contractors Are Your Responsibility
A handbook produced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) outlines the responsibilities of both the contractor and the client in situations in which work is carried out by contractors rather then employees. It does not apply to circumstances in which...
Data Loss - What to Do
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has recently issued guidance for organisations that lose personal data, having reported that it has been notified of nearly 100 such incidents to date. One of the less intuitively obvious...
Data Protection Guidance for Landlords
The Information Commissioner's best practice guide for landlords - written to to assist them in complying with the Data Protection Act can be downloaded from the Information Commissioner’s website . The guide includes a checklist which is intended to...
Dealing With Subject Access Requests
The Data Protection Act 1998 gives individuals the right to access information held about them by organisations. The Act governs how organisations can use the personal information they hold – including how they acquire, store, share or dispose of it. ...
Debt Recovery - Large Claims - Over £5,000
Our firm’s strapline is “If it’s important to you, it’s important to us”. Never was this more true than when it comes to debt recovery. We take a very robust, but polite, approach in recovering monies outstanding on your behalf....
Direct Marketing Via E-mail - Regulations
UK law relating to the sending of unsolicited direct marketing material by electronic means care based on the EC Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. A major aim of the Directive was to cut down on the amount of...
Directors Who Compete Face Court Wrath
The courts have recently shown again that they will crack down on directors who put their own interests before their fiduciary duties as directors of the company, to the extent of causing the company detriment. In the case of British Midland Tool...
Dismissals of employees with less than one year service
As all employers should be aware, the 3-step statutory dismissal procedure must be followed in order to fairly dismiss an employee. If this is not complied with in full, the dismissal will be automatically unfair and any compensation awarded to the...
E-Commerce Law - Do You Comply
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations introduced specific legislation to underpin e-commerce. If your business has an Internet presence then you need to make sure that you are not falling foul of these new rules. The...

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