HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) raised £9.5m by fining almost 100,000 workers for late self-assessments, despite them not owing any tax, a Freedom of Information request by accountancy firm RSM, reported by The Telegraph, has revealed. 95,000 workers earning less than £12,570 tax threshold were hit with penalties for late self-assessments in the 2021 to 2022 tax year. HMRC also confirmed 155,000 late tax return penalties were initially issued to low income individuals in the same year, so almost 60,000 late filing penalties were cancelled. Overall, 8% of individuals with income under £12,570 were issued with a £100 late filing penalty, despite there being no loss to the Treasury. Chris Etherington at RSM said: “There are various reasons why a £100 late filing penalty might be cancelled and taxpayers can appeal to HMRC within 30 days of being issued with a penalty notice. HMRC will accept a reasonable excuse but ignorance of a requirement to submit a return is unlikely to be successful.” HMRC used to not fine individuals for late self-assessment submissions, provided they paid taxes owed on time, but that changed in 2011.

Job openings have shrunk by a fifth in the past year, according to online jobs platform Indeed. The Telegraph says the figures mark a significant turning point that could assuage fears among the Bank of England’s interest rate setters that a tight labour market is fuelling persistent inflation. However, the data also shows that average starting pay for British jobs rose in May at the fastest pace in four months, despite the 20% annual fall in job openings, adding, Reuters says, “to the mixed picture on the inflation outlook”. The 6.5% rise in advertised starting pay compared with a year earlier outstrips the 6.0% rise in official Office for National Statistics wage data for the three months to April. Although this was the joint smallest increase since September 2022, it is still twice the rate the Bank of England views as consistent with low inflation. The largest pay rises occurred in typically low-paid sectors such as childcare, cleaning, security work, retail and hospitality, where many workers benefited from near 10% rise in the minimum wage in April. The most labour shortages, based on the length of time jobs were advertised for, were in the veterinary, engineering, aviation and software sectors.

The Labour Party has pledged to offer a minimum of two weeks’ quality work experience and recruit over 1,000 new career advisers in a move it claims will boost careers advice for one million school-age pupils in the next parliament, City AM reports. The policy is aimed particularly at so-called ‘NEETS’, young people not in employment, education or training. In 2018, 50,000 fell into this category, but the number has more than tripled to 167,000 now.  The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported a steep rise in under-25s who are not actively looking for work: a total of 3m now, compared to 384,000 just four years ago.

The Labour Party’s “new deal for working people” risks pushing down wages, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is warning, as the policies it will introduce will raise costs for businesses, thereby forcing owners to either reduce pay or cut hours. “It is important not to over-claim: these policies are not a free lunch for workers,” the think tank said. “We would generally expect much, and potentially close to all, of the cost of the benefit to be passed through to lower wages.” Among the proposals made by Labour are ‘day-one’ employment rights including statutory sick pay and paternity leave for new workers, and a “right to switch off,” meaning a ban on after-hours work calls and emails. When it comes to workers on the minimum wage, whose pay cannot be cut, extra benefits “might also slightly increase the risk of job loss for low-paid workers,” the IFS added. A Labour spokesman said: “The IFS has got this wrong. Fourteen years of pay stagnation has gone hand-in-hand with growing insecurity and poor enforcement. By providing more security at work, we will ensure workers have the confidence to move to better paid jobs. That’s why we will introduce a genuine living wage, extend sick pay and better enforce workers’ rights”.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s attempt to get workers back in the office on Fridays by offering discounted off-peak tube and rail fares has not been a success, the Financial Times has concluded. New data has revealed that Khan’s trial, launched for three months between 8^th March and 31^st May, cost around £24m, as compensation had to be paid to Transport for London (TfL) and national rail operators for the drop in prices from £5.60 to £3.60 for commuting on the underground at peak times. However, average underground passenger numbers during the period rose only marginally from 3.2m last year to 3.3m this year, TfL data shows.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has committed almost £90,000 to a “brand refresh” that “has left the Square Mile fuming,” City AM reports, noting that it is only seven years since its last rebrand.

Public relations agency MHP Group was awarded the project last month and will work on it for six months. Ben Yearsley, co-founder of Fairview Investing, said that he thought the brand refresh was a “total waste of money”. “Why do public bodies, especially one such as the FCA, need to waste money on rebrands?” asked Yearsley. “They aren’t selling to anyone, and they’re already pretty visible.” Richard Burger, a partner at law firm WilmerHale, agreed, saying: “The City knows who the FCA is, so many will question the need for rebranding, let alone the cost, which would be better spent on FCA staff. It’s not a great use of the fees and levies that firms work so hard to pay.” Richard Cannon, a partner at Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, also told the newspaper there was a growing concern that regulators and enforcement agencies “appear more concerned with how things look, than how things are.” John O’Connell, CEO of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said “the FCA should be focused on making sure regulation is up to date and relevant, not its own image.”

Post Office Inquiry: Former Fujitsu software engineer Gareth Jenkins admitted yesterday that the Post Office asked him to alter his draft witness statement against sub-postmaster Noel Thomas to make it less “emotive”. Thomas was sentenced to nine months for false accounting in 2006 and spent his 60^th birthday in prison. Giving evidence for the second day, it emerged that in his first draft, Jenkins said “system failure” could be one of the reasons behind the problems at Thomas’ branch, and that “such failures are normal occurrences”. The inquiry was shown how this line had been deleted, in edits to the document made by Post Office investigator, Graham Ward. Ward added in tracked changes to the document: “This is a really poor choice of words which seems to accept that failures in the system are normal and therefore may well support the postmasters' claim that the system is to blame for losses !!!!” Ward also told Jenkins that his statement was “potentially very damaging” and that the Post Office needed to ensure it was not “embarrassed” in court. Jenkins' statement was never put before the court as Thomas pleaded guilty. Jenkins was also asked whether he knew about Fujitsu's ability to access sub-postmasters' computers remotely, something that was denied by The Post Office when prosecuting. He said he had only found this out in 2018, thereby denying allegations made earlier in the inquiry by forensic investigator Ian Henderson, who claimed Jenkins told him in 2012 that Fujitsu "routinely used remote access to branch terminals" without sub-postmasters' knowledge or consent. Jenkins is also being investigated by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of perjury at various sub-postmaster trials.

Dominic Chappell, who bought British Homes Stores (BHS) from Sir Phillip Green for £1 (one pound) has been ordered by the High Court to repay the administrators at least £50m over its collapse. The case against Chappell and several former directors, was brought by Anthony Wright and Geoffrey Rowley of FRP Advisory Trading, the joint liquidators of the former high street retailer.  Mr Justice Leech found that the directors’ actions breached the threshold for wrongful trading, and ordered them to contribute £6.5m each to the company’s assets. The award is one of the largest ‘wrongful trading awards’ ever. Chappell, who was jailed for tax evasion in 2020, was said by the Judge to have purchased BHS without “any prospect” of obtaining working capital to meet its day-to-day financial needs, but took the “opportunity to plunder the BHS Group as and when he could”. In the order, seen by the Financial Times, he was requested to make the payments including £21.5m for a wrongful trading claim, £17.5m for breach of fiduciary duty, plus costs and interest, totalling at least £50m. Chappell was not in court due to ill health and the court heard he had “no legal counsel due to lack of funds”.

Former Selfridges co-owner Rene Benko has had his home raided by Austrian police as part of a fraud inquiry into the collapse of his property empire. Officers have seized a range of assets from the mansion in Innsbruck, including a Porsche sportscar, The Telegraph says. Benko faces allegations of embezzlement, fraud and fraudulent bankruptcy following the collapse of his property firm Signa Holdings last year. Signa filed for the largest bankruptcy in the country’s history. As well as Selfridges, Signa also owned the Chrysler building in New York, and at one time, its property portfolio was worth up to €30bn (£25bn), making it one of the biggest landlords in the world. Austrian prosecutors are now investigating allegations Benko concealed assets such as sports cars and weapons from a list of assets to be used in bankruptcy proceedings; he allegedly sold a Porsche 911 Speedster for €150,000, withdrew large sums of cash, and paid his wife €2m in January 2023. Authorities in Germany and Liechtenstein are also probing Benko and the collapse of the Signa empire; and investors including Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment are among those chasing more than $1bn (£790m) invested in Signa.

Shein is facing a campaign to block its proposed London listing by UK-based human rights group Stop Uyghur Genocide, which is represented by human rights law firm Leigh Day. The law firm has written to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) urging the regulator to refuse any attempt by Shein to list on the London Stock Exchange. "SHEIN has a zero-tolerance policy for forced labour and we are committed to respecting human rights. We take visibility across our entire supply chain seriously and we require our contract manufacturers to only source cotton from approved regions," Shein said in a statement to Reuters. The FCA declined to comment.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) said that all its environmental, social and governance (ESG) fund ranges and some pension funds will divest their stake in commodities miner and trader Glencore. LGIM said: "We remain concerned that Glencore does not meet our red line asking mining companies to disclose whether they plan to increase thermal coal capacity".  LGIM is also divesting from retailer TJX as it "does not have a zero deforestation policy in place and has not shown a clear intention to analyse its potential exposure to commodity-driven deforestation". LGIM CEO Michelle Scrimgeour said climate change "is increasingly part of the public discourse globally, given the risks it poses to our planet, and it can be a divisive issue". "From our perspective, in addition to vast environmental damage, the worst climate outcomes would have dire economic and social consequences, harming the value of the investments we manage, for the long-term, on behalf of our clients. Inaction is not an option," he continued.

Liontrust swung to a small loss in the year ended 31^st March after seeing net outflows of more than £6bn due to an adverse trading environment resulting from high inflation, reductions in Covid savings and tax rises. However, the asset manager said it's starting to see “signs of a change in investor sentiment and this is likely to move significantly when more central banks reduce interest rates and there is greater political and fiscal certainty in the UK”. Liontrust reported a loss before tax of £0.6m for the year, down from a profit of £49.3m previously. Adjusted pre-tax profit figure fell 23% to £67.4m. Assets under management and advice were £27.8bn, down 11.5% year-on-year.

Witan Investment Trust is set to be rolled into Alliance Trust. Alliance is the eighth largest investment trust in the UK, and is worth about £3.4bn, while Witan is about half its size, City AM says. The merger will create an investment trust with assets under management of around £5bn, and is likely to push the new ‘Alliance Witan’ trust into the FTSE 100.

Watches of Switzerland has reported a 40% fall in profit for the year to April 2024, from £155m to £92m. CEO Brian Duffy noted that sales in Europe were impacted by significant price increases “at a time of reduced consumer confidence” which hit discretionary spending, particularly in the UK. The FTSE 250 firm also noted that performance in the UK was driven by domestic clientele as tourist spending has not recovered since their VAT free shopping was scrapped.

Halford’s has reported a profit fall. Underlying pre-tax profit from total operations came in at £36.1m for the year ended 29^th March, compared with £44.2m logged the previous year.

Haleon has agreed to sell its nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) business outside the US to Dr Reddy's Laboratories for £500m. The portfolio includes the Nicotinell, Nicabate, Habitrol and Thrive brands. Haleon, a FTSE 100 consumer healthcare firm, was spun out of pharma GSK in July 2022.

Boeing’s largest trade union is demanding a record 40% pay rise and a guarantee of work for 32,000 staff amid intense scrutiny of Boeing’s factories, following a string of safety and production problems, The Telegraph reports. The company has been under intense pressure since the door of a 737 Max 9 jet blew out mid-flight in January.

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