The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has published for consultation two guidance documents that aim to help businesses and company directors comply with competition law. The first document, How Your Business Can Achieve Compliance, has been developed for businesses and…
The guidance confirms that VAT is only payable where the IFA provides advice, not where financial products are sold. Where an IFA’s client wants advice and buys a product, the IFA must determine which is the ‘predominant service’ and…
HM Revenue and Customs have now published a Technical Note confirming the terms that apply to the National Insurance (NI) ‘holiday’ for new businesses, introduced on 6 September 2010. For the NI holiday to apply, the new business has to…
Any contract consists of terms which are stated in the contract and terms which are implied into the contract by operation of law. The main implied terms of contracts are those imposed by statute, in particlular: The Supply of Goods…
Clauses limiting liability under contracts have always been contentious, so a recent decision is to be welcomed because it sets out clearly the limitations which apply to exclusion clauses. The case involved GB Gas Holdings (Centrica) and Accenture, which had…
Directors of a Scottish conference centre and hotel have been banned from acting as company directors for a total of 16 years. The Insolvency Service launched an investigation after the business went into liquidation and £60,000 went missing from company…
According to the Office of Fair Trading, consumers are currently making high numbers of information requests in relation to credit and hire agreements. Many businesses do not appear to understand their obligations under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA 1974)…
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently warned the debt management industry to cease from using unsolicited and misleading cold-calling practices to generate client leads. As part of its crackdown on illegal cold-calling in the sector, the OFT has recently…
The Information Commissioner has served the first financial penalties for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). In the first case, Hertfordshire County Council was issued with a penalty of £100,000 for two serious incidents where Council employees…
A case involving a ‘multiple shares’ company, in which different classes of shares were created, with different rights and varying dividends paid to the shareholders over time, illustrates the baleful look that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) give to such…
