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The government is being urged to throw out the rulebook relating to late payments and start afresh if it really wants to tackle the problem that bedevils so many small businesses. The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has conducted a widespread study into the issue and produced a report, Ending Late Payment. It says
Two directors have been disqualified after a court heard how they tried to “buy time” for their ailing company by producing misleading accounts and VAT figures. The directors were sole shareholders in a company importing and supplying plywood and sheet materials. At first their company was successful but it suffered a downturn in 2009 and
The co-owner of a restaurant has won her appeal to overturn an inaccurate valuation of the company’s shares by an independent expert. The issue arose because the restaurant had two co-owners who had equal shareholdings. A dispute arose and it was agreed that the best solution was for one shareholder to buy out the other
A woman who was written out of her mother’s will because she eloped with her boyfriend when she was 17 has won her appeal to inherit a share of the family estate and been awarded £163,000. It’s considered an important ruling by legal experts and could influence the way some wills are drawn up in
A hospital consultant who refused to pay any maintenance or child support has been ordered to hand over his entire fortune to his ex-wife. The case involved consultant anaesthetist Essam Aly and his ex-wife Enas. The couple married in 2002 and had a son and a daughter. They divorced in 2011. Mr Aly then moved
The government has outlined plans to end the pay gap between men and women within a generation. It says the first step is the introduction of the living wage, which will be set at £7.20 per hour from April 2016 and rise to more than £9 per hour by 2020. This will be particularly helpful
The government is introducing a series of measures to boost housebuilding so more young people can own their own home. The key measures include building discounted homes for first time buyers on all “reasonable-sized” developments, unlocking public land for hundreds of thousands of new homes and supporting small building firms with planning changes. Prime Minister
Thousands of people set up lasting powers of attorney (LPA) each year to protect their interests in case they lose mental capacity later in life. LPAs work by enabling you to appoint someone you trust to be your deputy and make decisions on your behalf should you ever lose the ability to manage your affairs.
A mother has been told that she can only have indirect contact with her children and cannot apply to change that decision for another four years. The Court of Appeal said the children had been subjected to too much conflict between their parents and needed to be protected from further, unnecessary stress. The case involved
A brother and sister have been removed as executors of their mother’s will because they could not work together and no longer trusted each other. The two siblings had been appointed as executors by their mother and were the main beneficiaries of her will. The brother lived in the same street where his mother had