At the Autumn Statement last week the Government announced that it had responded to the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) report on employment status originally published in March and it was “taking forward the majority of its recommendations”. Now, 9 months after the March report, a letter from HM Treasury has emerged indicating which of … Continue Reading
The UK government has announced today probably the longest awaited policy change in the LGPS investment world, with a proposal to remove the limits on asset allocation that have been in place since the 1980s. The consultation proposes moving to a prudential supervisory regime of the kind which has operated well in the private sector, as … Continue Reading
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recently published its summary of 2016 policy updates. The executive summary explains both how ISS has undertaken its review of global policies but more importantly summarises the key policy updates that will apply to companies from 1 February 2016. ISS will publish the full (or possibly summary!) additions, revisions and updates to the … Continue Reading
As we previously reported, the guidelines on executive remuneration (formerly known as the ABI guidelines) have now come under the auspices of the Investment Association (“IA”). As usual at this time of year, the guidelines (or principles, as we should now call them) have been dusted down. The only substantive change to the principles is that long-term incentives … Continue Reading
You may remember that HMRC said they would issue further guidance on the VAT treatment of DB pension fund administration costs over the summer. Well, by my reckoning we are well and truly into autumn but HMRC have today published a new Brief. Has it resolved matters? In short (and, sadly) No. First, we have official … Continue Reading
On 21 October 2015 a new advertising campaign hit UK TV screens. Pensions Minister, Baroness Altmann, had a hand in designing the character “Workie” who features in the advert and is said to be the physical embodiment of the workplace pension. The aim of the joint DWP/Pensions Regulator campaign is to raise awareness of workplace … Continue Reading
It came as no great surprise last week when the Pensions Minister, Baroness Ros Altmann, announced that: “the time is not right to implement Defined Ambition, Collective Benefits and Automatic Transfers“. It is a case of too much too soon, but will there ever be a right time? The Government’s written statement clarifies its intention … Continue Reading
The UK’s National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has rebranded itself as the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA). Why the change? The PLSA says it better reflects changes to the way retirement provision is made, with people working longer and funding retirement in new ways, as well as having new rights to access their … Continue Reading
My school reports were always pretty good. I was, in fact, what was known as “a bit of a swot” in the 1980s. My friend, however, lacked enthusiasm. One year her physics report read: “Last year I said that [name] had reached rock bottom; this year, she has started to dig in.” We thought it … Continue Reading
Last year we covered the saga of Sports Direct’s 2015 Share Scheme through the vote to approve the scheme and the subsequent votes at the 2014 AGM. This story has refused to go away and resurfaced this week at the company’s 2015 AGM. There has been much press comment on the outcomes and reasons why … Continue Reading
The Investment Association (IA) has announced that it has set up a working group, the Executive Remuneration Working Group, to address the perceived complexity of executive pay and the lack of incentives for directors of UK companies to act in the best interests of shareholders over the long term (see our previous post). The remit … Continue Reading
Are you one of the 2,500 private sector employers operating a contracted-out pension plan? Or are you a trustee or an adviser to one of those pension plans? There is work to do if the sponsoring employer wishes to mitigate the effects of the increase to its National Insurance contributions from April 2016 when the … Continue Reading
Friday last week saw the release of an almost comical consultation document setting out HMRC’s proposals for the simplification of the tax and NIC treatment of termination payments. As many people will know, the tax treatment of termination payments depends on the reason for the payment. The most often confused aspect is whether a payment … Continue Reading
By Sarah Gosling Whilst many IFAs and scheme administrators may be glad that pension input periods (“PIPs”) are being aligned with the tax year – the proposed transitional process to get them there may cause some serious headaches and prompt some rule amendments. It was announced in the Summer Budget that PIPs are to be … Continue Reading
On 7 July we reported that HMRC’s online filing system for employment related shares was down – worrying, given the 6 July filing deadline. Things finally seem to be returning to normal but some issues are still being reported as it appears HMRC are limiting the number of concurrent users of the system so that error … Continue Reading
The recent clawback laws being discussed and introduced in the UK and the US differ quite markedly and represent two almost entirely different approaches to recovering “erroneously” awarded incentive-based compensation. So which flavour do you prefer? One shouldn’t forget, of course, that the PRA’s provisions regarding clawback are only one half of a two pronged … Continue Reading
We anticipate that the significant increase in insurance premium tax that was announced in the UK Summer Budget on 8 July will encourage many more employers to explore corporate healthcare trusts. IPT will increase from 6% to 9.5% from November 2015. This will apply to employee health insurance policies like all other UK insurance products. … Continue Reading
As widely trailed, the UK government has confirmed in the Summer Budget on 8 July that pensions tax relief for those earning more than £150,000 will be severely restricted from April 2016 – relief will be tapered to a minimum of £10,000 a year. In addition, the government announced that it is launching a consultation … Continue Reading
Following on from our earlier blog post predicting that companies might have issues when using the new online service for registering employee share plans with HMRC, it appears that problems are indeed emerging. Despite the looming deadline of 6 July, we hear anecdotal reports that so far only about 25% of plans have been registered. In … Continue Reading
Whilst some smaller UK employers and new companies are yet to reach their pensions automatic enrolment staging date, the largest companies are in the process of planning for the first cycle of automatic re-enrolment. Companies can choose to re-enrol three months before the third anniversary of their staging date. For those that went first in … Continue Reading
The High Pay Centre, well known in the UK for its opposition to the trend for higher executive pay, published its latest report on Wednesday. The catchy title “No Routine Riches” reflects the inevitable conclusions that the current approach to executive pay is misconceived. The main headline-catching recommendation is that companies should drop their LTIPs … Continue Reading
Over 70 FTSE100 companies have now released their DRRs and we are well into the 2015 AGM season. So far, most FTSE100 companies are coming through the AGM season unscathed. In respect of the implementation report (this is the aspect of the directors’ remuneration report that describes how the remuneration committee implemented the company’s approved … Continue Reading
The Financial Reporting Council has published a consultation on amendments to accounting standard FRS102, which deals with share-based payments (such as options) with a cash alternative. The amendments are aimed at aligning FRS102, which tends to be used by smaller companies, with the international accounting standards used by listed companies. The closing date for responses … Continue Reading
In our blog posts last week we reported on the Labour and Liberal Democrat manifesto pledges affecting executive remuneration. The Scottish National Party has now published its manifesto, which picks up similar themes. The SNP has a number of policies relating to strengthening the position of trade unions in the workplace, with part of the … Continue Reading
