Category: Blog

Stamp Duty Tax increase in the past 25 years

25 years of stamp duty – homebuyers see 490% tax cost increase

The latest property market analysis that has been conducted by Benham and Reeves, a London estate agent, has revealed that that the average SDLT bill for the average homebuyer across the United Kingdom over the last 25 years has increased by 490%.

The increase is mainly due to the property boom and with the stamp duty holiday having ended on 30 September 2021, the cost of stamp duty has now never been higher. Further the legislation surrounding SDLT over the last few years has meant that the it has never been more complicated to calculate the rate of tax. For example, the introduction of surcharges for non-residents, first time buyer discounts and second-home buyer surcharge.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact James Cohen directly on jcohen@gscsolicitors.com or 0207 822 2257.

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved.  GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

https://bit.ly/3naao8W

UK Home Office turns down Nawaz Sharif’s stay extension request

LONDON: Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visa to the United Kingdom remains valid but his application for extension in stay has been turned down by the Home Office with the right to appeal against the Home Office decision.

Hussain Nawaz Sharif confirmed here that Nawaz Sharif’s extension in stay application has been rejected but an appeal has already been lodged at the Immigration Tribunal.

GSC’s Head of Corporate & Private Immigration Hateem Ali was asked by geo.tv to comment on the situation:

Hateem Ali, a leading UK immigration solicitor from GSC Solicitors LLP said: “if the previous visit visa extensions were on the basis of medical grounds (which seems to be the case here) then typically you can keep extending for a total of 18 months. In this particular case it would appear that the Home Office were no longer willing to keep extending on that basis. 

He added: “If the latest application for an extension has been refused with a full right to appeal the entire appeal process can potentially take anything between 9 months to over 20 months to be decided by the Immigration tribunal in the UK. This period does not even take into account any potential subsequent judicial review once all appeal rights have been exhausted.

“So although Mr. Nawaz Sharif has been refused it is not necessarily the end of the process.”

Sources: https://www.geo.tv/latest/363722-home-office-turns-downs-nawaz-sharifs-stay-extension-request-but-visa-valid 

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

 

New Building Safety Bill

Government introduces controversial Building Safety Bill today in Parliament

The legislation, which has to be approved by MPs, will bring in far-reaching changes to the way residential towers are built and managed.

The government is introducing Building Safety Bill in Parliament today that will usher in far-reaching reforms for the way residential towers are built and managed.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has now published the new Building Safety Bill which reforms building safety regulation.

This is a new regime for building safety regulation and with the aim of giving greater powers to residents in high rise residential buildings to bring claims for defective workmanship.

A new Building Safety Regulator will have responsibility for overseeing the new regime.

If you have been affected by the new change in law, or would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact Carole Joseph directly on: cjoseph@gscsolicitors.com or 0207 822 2222.

Source: https://thenegotiator.co.uk/government-introduces-controversial-building-safety-bill-today-in-parliament/ 

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

 

Furlough ending on 30th September: Keeping good lines of communication

There will be a ‘bloodbath of redundancies when furlough support starts to reduce’
UK chancellor Rishi Sunak will not extend the furlough scheme which could lead to a “bloodbath of redundancies” and with the benefits that are on offer pre-Covid many people are reluctant to go back to work.

Currently, the furlough scheme is due to end on 30 September, by which time, according to the government roadmap, all social distancing restrictions will be lifted. So, it will be a return to a time of “pre-covid normality”. Although it won’t be as the world has changed since March 2020.

Looking forward, for both employers and employees, the key concepts to bear in mind are planning and good communication.

If you are an employer and you have staff on furlough, start considering now what you think your workforce will look like in the autumn. If it is going to be smaller as a result of redundancies,  bear in mind that the redundancy process takes time and can be complicated (you should not undertake a redundancy process before getting proper legal advice).

If you are an employee on furlough and you think that you might be made redundant when furlough ends, there is no harm in seeing what else is out there.

Keeping good lines of communication open is important so as to reduce misunderstandings and allow parties to better plan for the future.

If you have any employment law queries, please do not hesitate to contact David Nathan at dnathan@gscsolicitors.com or on 020 7822 2247.

https://bit.ly/2TxIecS

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

 

Eviction ban lifted – what does it mean for you

warrant 6th july

About 400,000 renters have had eviction notices or been told to expect them, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says. One renter in arrears told the BBC his landlord has “the power to just flick their finger and get me out”.

But a landlord said she had struggled to pay her mortgage while her tenant was not paying rent. The government said it was balancing the needs of landlords to use the courts with support for tenants by continuing to require extended notice periods.

During the pandemic, bailiffs were asked not to carry out evictions if anyone living in the property had Covid-19 symptoms or was self-isolating. Eviction notice periods were extended to six months as an emergency measure during the pandemic – but will drop to four months from 1 June. Before the pandemic, notice periods were usually two months in England.

‘The main reaction is that the gloves are off but expect delays, because there will be a severe backlog’, says Head of Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Michael Shapiro.

He continues, ‘Landlords should be cautious when deciding to evict tenants because they may find it difficult to re-let rather than accept the loss of the arrears, or come into arrangement with the tenant for the arrears to be paid over time, whilst allowing the tenant to remain in the property and paying their ongoing rent in full.’

If you have been affected by the new change in law, please do not hesitate to contact Michael Shapiro directly on: mshapiro@gscsolicitors.com or 0207 822 2246.

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57262181 

Government proposal for rolling in-year self-employed tax system

The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), has responded to the government’s call for evidence on a new tax system for the self-employed. This system would replace annual self-assessment tax returns with a rolling in-year system. IPSE has said that although it welcomes the government’s concern with the tax experience of freelancers, there are still “unanswered questions” about the proposal that must be explored.

“First, many self-employed people’s incomes fluctuate substantially throughout the year – and while the current annual system accounts for these and ensures self-employed people pay the right rate, it is not clear how this would work with rolling in-year taxes. It is also not yet clear how this would work with late payments – which are a substantial problem for the self-employed.

Over the last decade there has been a rapid increase in the UK’s workforce working through their own businesses and becoming self-employed for many different reasons.

However, there are reports that the Treasury lose out on a significant amount of tax when you compare an employee doing the same work as a self-employed person, working on their own or through their own limited company.

What is the argument? The Treasury are losing out on tax as the self-employed are not subject to employer’s National insurance Contributions (NIC’s) as an employee’s income would.

The Chancellor is now trying to rebalance the loss of tax due to the continued increase of UK workforce working as self-employed.

Rolling out this new tax system is the best strategy to do this, as it seems. Whether this will work or not, only time will tell. No doubt that such an overhaul of the system will be extremely costly in itself.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact James Cohen directly on jcohen@gscsolicitors.com or 0207 822 2257.

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved.  GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

https://bit.ly/3d6ZiN7

UK’s Supreme Court: Uber drivers must be treated as workers

Uber drivers must be treated as workers rather than self-employed, the UK’s Supreme Court has ruled.

The decision could mean thousands of Uber drivers are entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay. The ruling could leave the ride-hailing app facing a hefty compensation bill, and have wider consequences for the gig economy. Uber said the ruling centred on a small number of drivers and it had since made changes to its business. In a long-running legal battle, Uber had finally appealed to the Supreme Court after losing three earlier rounds. Uber’s share price dipped as US trading began on Friday as investors grappled with what impact the London ruling could have on the firm’s business model. It is being challenged by its drivers in multiple countries over whether they should be classed as workers or self-employed. Last week the Supreme Court ordered that Uber drivers are not self-employed, rather they are workers.

This will have implications not only for Uber, but for the wider gig economy, which accounts for millions of people.

By being classed as a worker, rather than someone who is self-employed, an Uber driver will now be entitled to certain legal protections such as protection from discrimination and rights to rest periods.

The court also highlighted that in determining someone’s status, a tribunal should examine what is actually happening in the relationship and not just what is stated in any documentation.

So, calling someone self-employed in an agreement will not help if,  in reality, that person is a worker.

It is important, that employers review their contracts to ensure that they are accurate.

The law in this article is correct as of 23 February 2021.

If you have any employment law queries, please do not hesitate to contact David Nathan at dnathan@gscsolicitors.com or on 020 7822 2247.

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

 

 

The Hong Kong migrants fleeing to start new lives in the UK

The UK will introduce a new visa at the end of January that will give 5.4 million Hong Kong residents – a staggering 70% of the territory’s population – the right to come and live in the UK, and eventually become citizens.

It is making this “generous” offer to residents of its former colony because it believes China is undermining Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms. In the end, Britain estimates that about 300,000 will take up the visa offer over the next five years.

This Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) (BN(O)) visa is a generous one as it does not impose skills or minimum income requirements.

Eligible applicants can work or study in the UK, apply for settlement after 5 years and British citizenship 12 months after settlement.

Some BN(O) passport holders who are currently residing in the UK under other visa categories may also benefit from switching to the BN(O) visa.

For any questions on Business or Private Immigration to the UK or if you require assistance with your existing application, please contact Head of Business & Private Immigration at GSC Solicitors LLP Hateem Ali on hali@gscsolicitors.com or +44(0)207 822 2209.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55357495

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved.  GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

 

Job cuts due to the pandemic

Premier Inn owner to cut 1,500 jobs
Whitbread who owns Premier Inns are to cut around 1,500 jobs as sales have more than halved due to the coronavirus lockdowns.
Norwegian cuts over 1,000 jobs at Gatwick airport
Budget airline Norwegian has cut 1,100 pilot and cabin crew jobs at Gatwick airport as the company has axed their long-haul network. The airline reported a £442m loss in the first six months of the year, and in August 2020 Norwegian announced they will need more financial support as direct result of the pandemic.

From an employment perspective, this presents many challenges. Furlough is still a reality, and levels of redundancies continue to be high (especially in sectors such as aviation, hospitality and retail).

It is important to get proper advice from a trusted legal advisor before, for example embarking on a redundancy process, or putting someone on furlough, or simply deciding to terminate an employee’s employment. They should be dealt with in accordance with the correct law and procedures, or the adverse consequences could be costly.

For those employers who are still looking to employ new staff, or for those employees who are starting new jobs, it is also important to ensure that the documents you are signing adequately protect you.

If you have any employment law queries, please do not hesitate to contact David Nathan at dnathan@gscsolicitors.com or on 020 7822 2247.

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.

 https://londonlovesbusiness.com/premier-inn-owner-to-cut-1500-jobs/

https://londonlovesbusiness.com/norwegian-cuts-over-1000-jobs-at-gatwick-airport/

COVID-19: Supreme Court backs small firms over business interruption insurance claims

Insurers are being urged to pay up without delay after judges dismiss the industry’s arguments over the disputed claims.

Small firms are cheering a Supreme Court ruling that appears set to force insurers to pay out on disputed coronavirus business interruption claims worth at least £1.2bn.

The first step for a policy holder should be to take legal advice on liability. Instruct a solicitor to advise on the terms of your policy combined with your factual matrix.

Further steps thereafter could include obtaining forensic advise as to the value of the claim and also funding for potential litigation

If you have any questions or concerns about your business, contact Richard Curtin directly on rcurtin@gscsolicitors.com or 020 7822 2222.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-supreme-court-backs-small-firms-over-business-interruption-insurance-claims-12188322

© 2021 GSC Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. GSC grants permission for the browsing of this material and for the printing of one copy per person for personal reference. GSC’s written permission must be obtained for any other use of this material. This publication has been prepared only as a guide to provide readers with general information on recent legal developments. It is not formal legal advice and should not be relied on for any purpose. You should not act or refrain from acting based on the information contained in this document without obtaining specific formal advice from suitably qualified advisors.