Age Discrimination Changes

Are you ready for 1st October? Have you checked your job ads to ensure they don’t refer to ages of staff or use phrases like “youthful” in setting out the person needed to fill a vacancy? Have you looked at your retirement ages and hiring policies?

Andrew Bryan a partner in Churchers says “1st October is D Day for the age discrimination legislation. All businesses need to look at their retirement policies. To start with, most employees in the UK will have a right to keep working to age 65 even if their employment contract specifies 50, 55, 60, 63 or any other age, with a few exceptions such as footballers. Check your contracts now. In addition, even at 65 an employee cannot be shown the door. You have an obligation to go through a special procedure before asking them to go, although the right to force them to leave remains, something which Age Concern is challenging in the courts as age discriminatory.

The new rules do not just apply to older people being discriminated against. There may be no good reason older people are treated better than the young or youngsters might be refused jobs they are perfectly competent to do and those younger people are protected too. Gone are the job ads – age 25 – 30 or those with words such as “young thrusting employees wanted”. Even office jokes about the elderly could not only be non-PC but also illegal and lead to an age discrimination case later.

In a country with a huge problem over funding pensions, allowing people to work longer should be enormously beneficial. However, in companies where the old were traditionally moved out to make space for the young, promotion issues may become an issue and log jams may be caused. Specialist areas like pensions require individual guidance. Call us for information on how the new rules affect you. call Andrew on 02392 210170 for further information.

Identity Fraud

Be careful to hide your personal information as identity fraud is on the increase. It is not surprising sales of shredder machines for paper have been increasing as both online and off-line fraud increases.

Stuart Nuttall says “The Federation of Small Businesses has warned members about the threat of company identity fraud after reports of bogus calls from people pretending to be Companies House officials. Other scams include people pretending to be from banks, by email or telephone, who then ask for personal information such as passwords. No bank or credit card company would ever do this over the telephone. Fraudsters have targeted small businesses to seek secure authentication codes for Companies House files, which could then be used to set up fake companies and to steal money, goods and services. Companies House, which set up a secure online system for company filing, following problems with identity fraud in the past, has posted a notice on its website confirming that they will never contact small businesses by telephone to ask for authentication codes.

David Croucher, FSB Home Affairs Chairman, said: "Company identity fraud, though still mercifully rare, is on the increase and can go undetected for a long time. When it does happen it can be devastating for small firms and in the worst cases, businesses can go bust because of it."

He added: "We urge all small business owners to look after company details carefully and not to respond to unsolicited calls from people saying they are from Companies House and asking for private information. Small business owners that receive such calls should try to obtain a return contact number and contact Companies House immediately.”

We can help advise you as to how to keep your dealings with Companies House and your business in general confidential and also draft confidentiality agreements with other suppliers and customers with whom you deal. Call 02392 862424 for further information.

Making and Changing your Will

Many people fail to make a will, assuming their estate will go to their husband or wife if they die. However, those dying without a will may find in many cases their money goes to their wife and other relatives as determined by intestacy law. This may not be what they expected or wished. It is therefore sensible in most cases to set out your wishes in advance by making a will. This will also give you the chance to try to avoid inheritance tax, for example, by leaving some money immediately to your children, with the rest to your spouse. If the sum left to the children is less than the amount at which inheritance tax starts to apply, known as the “nil rate band” then no IHT will be payable. Whereas if all the money goes to the spouse, when the spouse dies and passes it to the children there will be more IHT to pay. Of course, some estates are too small to attract IHT and in others the spouse needs all the money but it is always wise to take some tax law advice at the time of making a will.

Mary Hazlewood says ; “The Finance Act 2006 became law this summer with some wide-ranging changes. Most tax professionals have advised their clients to wait until now to look at their wills and trusts as the proposed changes, which were set out in the budget, were subject to amendment before they became law. The changes mean that some trusts are subject to more tax than before, but are not as extensive as originally feared. If you have an existing life interest or accumulation and maintenance trust, this should be reviewed before the 6th April 2008 transitional period ends. You may need to review this earlier if one of those benefiting comes into their life interest before that date. If your will contains a trust (as many do) that should be looked at by experts in this area to see if any changes are needed.

New trusts can be subject to the new taxes. If you are likely to be putting into trust more than the nil rate band amount for inheritance tax (“IHT”) then you may be affected by the changes. Many people put their life insurance policies into trust for their spouse or children when they die, to avoid inheritance tax on the policy proceeds. Existing policies are mostly unaffected by the new Act but it is sensible to have them checked and also take advice if setting up a new trust for a life insurance product. Contact us on 013290822333 for further information.