For those in the fishing industry, the investment in a new boat is significant regardless of the size and scale of the fishing enterprise. The Capital Allowances (CA’s) regime on boats over the years has been generous, particularly as certain reliefs exist only for this class of asset that aren’t available to other capital intensive industries such as farming.
Despite some positives it would be a fair assessment to note that deal making in 2019 has been somewhat of a challenge. However, as is widely known, when markets are in a state of uncertainty this can present opportunities, and this appears to be the case for non-UK headquartered, often well-funded, strategic acquirers who see Scottish based businesses as key targets.
Recently, members of the R2 team caught up with other insolvency practitioners and solicitors at our annual Scottish conference, which is a more entertaining event than it sounds! Over the course of the conference, the conversation covered all the normal topics of how the market in our various parts of the country was, what impact Brexit uncertainty was having, and a few war stories from recent cases that were worthy of some discussion.
On 7 January 2020 the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, announced that the Government will carry out a review of the off-payroll reform, known as IR35, which is due to come in to affect in April 2020.
As part of the review, the Government will be working with stakeholders representative of those affected by the reform, including contactor groups and medium and large sized businesses via a series of roundtables. The aim of the review is to identify and determine if any further steps can be taken to ensure the smooth and successful implementation of the off-payroll reform. In addition to the review, the Government is expected to carry out internal analysis, including re-evaluation of the enhanced Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool as well as revisiting public sector bodies’ experience of implementing the reform to the off-payroll working rules in 2017.
It is anticipated that the review will be concluded by mid-February with the view that the off-payrolling changes will still be implemented in April 2020, following the scheduled UK Budget announcement on 11 March 2020. Although it is doubtful that the reform will be scrapped, it is possible that the review will take longer than anticipated and potentially the date of implementation could be postponed. However, this is not a certainty. Therefore, it is important that businesses continue to prepare for the off-payroll changes to be implemented in April 2020, ensuring compliance with the changing legislation.
For any further information on IR35 or the ongoing review, please contact Charlotte Edwards (charlotte.edwards@aab.uk) or your usual AAB contact.
After many years of campaigning, the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 is due to come into force in the new tax year, meaning that parents will be entitled to a day-one right to statutory leave of 2 weeks if they suffer the loss of a child under the age of 18 or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy commencing on or after 6 April 2020.
