Business News Articles

New tax law will add to cost of hiring temporary workers
A change in employment law meaning that all employers have to pay 15% VAT on the entire tax of hiring temporary workers will result in tens of thousands of temps losing their jobs. The new tax will be implemented on April 1st and recruitment agencies have calculated that the extra VAT charge will add £400m to the cost of hiring temporary workers and will exacerbate the current employment figur... more

Banks lose latest court appeal over late charges
Seven high street banks and one building society have lost their latest appeal over unauthorised overdraft charges in the Court of Appeal. The case has been brought by the Office of Fair Trading to determine whether overdraft and unpaid item charges - which can be as much as £38 - are unfair. If the UK lenders - Abbey, Barclays, Clydesdale, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Nationwide - lose the ... more

Small firms could save over £1,000 as EU cut accounting red tape
The EU have announced cuts to the amount of red tape faced by small businesses, which could save each small firm over £1,000. The European Commission is abolishing accounting rules which oblige ‘micro enterprises' - defined as companies with fewer than ten staff and with a turnover of less than £880,000 as year - to submit audit reports to national authorities. "Reducing requirements for... more

Female entrepreneurs call for more government help
Small and medium-sized businesses owned by females have little or no debt and experienced a 40% rise in enquiries for business advice, according to research conducted by Prowess. However, the survey also revealed that the reduction of the availability of bank finance, alongside reduced government funding has had a significant impact on their firms. "Women are showing incredible fighting spir... more

RBS records £24bn loss - largest ever in UK corporate history
The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that in 2008 it made a loss of £24bn - the largest annual loss in UK corporate history. RBS, one of the banks that were bailed out by the government in a £37bn scheme, also announced that it would put £325bn of toxic assets into the governments Asset Protection Scheme that offers insurance against any further losses. The government will inject an e... more

A quarter of manufacturing and business services SMEs expect growth
Small companies in manufacturing and businesses services sectors are the most optimistic SMEs, according to research by the Open University Business School. The survey of 1,300 small businesses in November and December found that over a quarter of firms in these sectors expect sales to increase. Small businesses that view themselves as ‘entrepreneurial' were also optimistic about the futur... more

Vodafone announce 500 job cuts in the UK
Vodafone has announced that it is to cut around 500 of UK jobs as the telecommunications company seeks to reduce operating costs by over £1bn. The company, which employs 10,000 workers in the UK, is cutting jobs as part of its recently announced plan to cut costs due to rising costs and increased competition. "Vodafone UK has today announced reductions to its operating costs in order for it... more

British & International Franchise Exhibition held in London March 20th and 21st
The British & International Franchise Exhibition is being held at Olympia in London on the 20th and 21st of March. The franchise show features exhibitors from a range of franchised businesses, each offering the chance to expand your company or to start running your own business. Tickets for the event, run in conjunction with the British Franchise Association, that are booked in advance cost... more

Small firms concerned over impact of further Post Office closures
Over 80% of small company owners depend on the Post Office to send their mail and for other business transactions and are concerned over the impact that potential closures of branches would have on their businesses, accoridng to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The FSB conducted the survey of over 5,000 of its members ahead of the government's plans to part-nationalise the ... more

Google issues apology as Gmail crashes
Google has issued an apology to its Gmail users who were unable to send and receive emails yesterday for several hours after a global crash paralysed the system. Many small businesses were among the 127m users who lost valuable time yesterday as the third most popular webmail service experienced serious technical issues. Google has admitted that the service was down for over two hours and th... more