Author Archive: Muhammad Zia

Brexit: New immigration rules to help alleviate Britain’s HGV crisis

New immigration rules and regulations will be introduced to help fix Britain’s HGV crisis, the Government has announced.

It comes after thousands of European HGV drivers left the UK at the end of the Brexit transition period – resulting in significant delays across the country.

If you move goods in the UK or overseas, here’s what you need to know.

Is there an HGV shortage?

According to the Road Haulage Association (RHA), there is an estimated shortage of 100,000 HGV drivers in the UK. This includes 15,000 European drivers that returned home after the UK left the EU earlier this year.

The shortage has also been attributed to Covid-19 disruption. Loadstar, for example, found that the UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) had cancelled “at least” 30,000 HGV tests last year due to coronavirus-related issues.

This is leading to widespread problems in the supply chain, including the widely reported fuel crisis and wastage; Tesco is reportedly binning 50 tonnes of fresh food every week because it cannot get produce delivered to stores in time.

What are the new immigration rules?

The Government says up to 5,000 HGV drivers will be allowed to come to the UK to ease temporary supply chain pressures in food haulage industries.

Under the new immigration measures, 300 fuel drivers will be given permission to arrive immediately and stay until the end of March 2022.

Around 4,700 additional food haulage drivers will then arrive from late October and leave by the end of February 2022 under the new temporary visa rules.

The application process – expected to form part of the T5 Seasonal Worker scheme – is not limited to certain nationalities.

As part of this initiative, 5,500 visas will also be made available to overseas poultry workers “to avoid any potential further pressures on the food industry during this exceptional period”.

The measures come after the Government ruled out issuing visas to foreign workers earlier this year – signalling a U-turn in immigration policy.

What else is the Government doing?

  • “Free, short, intensive” HGV courses will be launched to train up to 4,000 drivers to be road-ready and gain a category C or category C&E licence
  • Defence Driving Examiners (DDEs) will be deployed to increase the country’s testing capacity
  • One million letters will be sent to former HGV drivers to encourage them to return to the profession
  • Road haulage sector is “taking steps” to improve the industry, including increased wages, flexible working and fixed hours.

Measures welcomed by industry

Welcoming the changes to immigration policy, the Food and Drink Federation’s Chief Executive, Ian Wright, said: “This is something UK food and drink manufacturers have asked for over the last few months to alleviate some of the pressure labour shortages have placed on the food supply chain.

“This is a start but we need the government to continue to collaborate with industry and seek additional long-term solutions.”

Elizabeth de Jong, Logistics UK’s Director of Policy, added: “Logistics UK welcomes the government package of measures aimed at improving the ongoing driver crisis. The government’s decision to grant 5,000 temporary visas for HGV drivers to help in the short term is a huge step forward; we are so pleased the government has listened to our calls and has made this bold decision to support the UK economy.

“We are also delighted that DfT have agreed to jointly send nearly one million letters to all drivers who currently hold an HGV driving licence. With fantastic HGV driving opportunities available in the logistics industry, now is the perfect time to consider returning to the occupation.”

Get advice today

For help and advice with related matters, please get in touch with our team today.

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax: Businesses and landlords get an additional year to prepare

Businesses will now get an additional year to prepare for the Income Tax digital changes, as revealed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Acknowledging the challenges faced by many UK businesses during the pandemic, the Government will now launch Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income tax Self-Assessment (ITSA) in the tax year beginning April 2024, rather than 2023.

What you need to know

The self-employed and landlords with a business income over £10,000 per annum will now need to follow the MTD rules from 6 April 2024.

It will not be necessary for general partnerships to join MTD for ITSA until the tax year beginning in April 2025, while the date other types of partnerships will be required to join is yet to be confirmed.

The Government introduced a more favourable system of penalties for the late filing and late payment of tax for ITSA in March 2021.

This scheme for those who are required for MTD for ITSA will now come into force in the tax year beginning April 2024, and April 2025 for all other ITSA taxpayers.

There will be the chance to explore the benefits and challenges of MTD early if you are an eligible business or landlord via the Government’s pilot scheme.

This is already underway and will be increasingly expanded during the 2022/23 tax year, preparing for a greater scale of testing in the 2023/24 tax year.

What will you need?

It’s vital that businesses use ‘functional compatible software’ to meet the new requirements, such as a software program or set of compatible software programs which can connect to HMRC systems via its Application Programming Interface (API).

The software must be able to:

  • Keep records in a digital form
  • Preserve digital records in a digital form
  • Create a VAT or tax return from the digital records held in functional compatible software and provide HMRC with this information digitally
  • Provide HMRC with VAT and tax data on a voluntary basis
  • Receive information from HMRC via the API platform that the business has complied.

Many of the existing cloud accounting platforms that we offer are able to fulfil these roles and have been designed with MTD in mind.

Will you be prepared?

MTD is the first step of HMRC’s shift towards an innovative, digital tax service, supporting businesses through their digitalisation journey in the ever-evolving modern world.

Although the initiative has been postponed by a year, taxpayers must be fully prepared, as they could face fines or penalties if they do not abide by these changes. For help and advice on related matters, contact our expert team today.

Retained EU laws to be “improved or repealed” if they do not benefit British businesses

Retained EU Legislation will be “improved or repealed” if it does not benefit UK businesses, the Government has announced.

The move forms part of the Government’s plans to “capitalise on new Brexit freedoms” following the UK’s departure earlier this year.

If you run a business in the UK, here’s what you need to know.

What is ‘retained EU legislation’?

Despite officially leaving the EU earlier this year, thousands of EU rules and regulations were automatically kept on the statute book. This may be due to time constraints or points of contention that could not be resolved before the end of the transition period.

Which EU laws will be reviewed?

In essence, all of them. The Government said “thousands” of EU laws will be scrutinised to ensure they are “helping the UK to thrive”.

GDPR, transport, AI, and farming at heart of review

The “burdensome” General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is among the regimes to be reviewed, the Government has revealed. Proposed reforms were published earlier this year, setting out a “pro-growth, trusted data rights regime, which is more proportionate and less burdensome than the EU’s GDPR rules”.

EU vehicle standards will also be reviewed, enabling the UK to become a leader in “future technologies like autonomous maritime vessels, self-driving cars and drones”.

Artificial intelligence and farming will also be prioritised in the review.

Further individual regulatory reforms can be found here.

How will this affect British businesses?

While cutting red tape and bureaucracy, it has been suggested that the review will aim to remove the “special status” that EU retained law “still enjoys in our legal framework” and “determine how best to ensure that UK courts can no longer give undue precedence to EU-derived laws in future”.

This means certain regulations will no longer apply in the UK, meaning businesses may be forced to adapt to new rules.

The Government added, however, that it will provide businesses with “legal certainty” throughout the review.

“Overbearing regulations were often conceived and agreed in Brussels with little consideration of the UK national interest”

Commenting on the review, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Lord Frost, said: “From rules on data storage to the ability of businesses to develop new green technologies, overbearing regulations were often conceived and agreed in Brussels with little consideration of the UK national interest.

“We now have the opportunity to do things differently and ensure that Brexit freedoms are used to help businesses and citizens get on and succeed.

“Today’s announcement is just the beginning. The Government will go further and faster to create a competitive, high-standards regulatory environment which supports innovation and growth across the UK as we build back better from the pandemic.”

Get advice today

For help and advice with related matters, please get in touch with our team today.