Our very own Leigh Bird was a recent lucky winner of a handful of prizes courtesy of Smooth Radio and rather generously donated 20x Stylish Soup Bowls and Bread plates that she won, to raise funds for our Charity of the Year, Annabel's Angels.

The rather nice Soup Bowl sets were snapped up rather quickly by other members of staff who raised a tidy sum to add to Annabel's Angels pot for the year.

Well done Leigh !

HMRC have updated their guidance on how to spot genuine contact from HMRC, and how to tell when an email or text message is phishing or bogus.

Phishing is the fraudulent act of emailing a person in order to obtain their personal and financial information such as passwords and credit card or bank account details. These emails often include a link to a bogus website encouraging you to enter your personal details.

Internet link: Genuine HMRC contact

Over the summer HMRC published six consultation documents on Making Tax Digital. The six consultations set out detailed plans on how HMRC propose to fundamentally change the method by which taxpayers, particularly the self-employed and landlords, send information to HMRC. Two key changes proposed are:

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) is reminding employers and their advisers, that they need to comply with their auto enrolment duties or face penalties:

At this time of year some employers may wish to make small gifts to their employees.

For many years HMRC have been prepared to accept that trivial benefits were not taxable under certain circumstances. However a statutory exemption has been introduced from the start of the current tax year which should give employers certainty that the benefits provided are exempt and do not result in a reportable employee benefit in kind. In order for the benefit to be exempt it must satisfy the following conditions: