The latest tax, employment, business and economic news affecting firms and individuals alike. Updated each day.
23 May 13
Inflation in the UK fell to 2.4 per cent in April after lower than expected fuel prices, figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown.
22 May 13
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is to miss its target to reduce tax credit error and fraud by £5 billion, a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said.
22 May 13
Scotland can 'more than afford to be a successful independent country', Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has said.
21 May 13
Retailers experienced a one per cent increase in footfall in April, when compared on a like-for-like basis with April 2012, according to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium.
20 May 13
Just under a third of adults in the UK do not know how they will meet their financial needs later on in life or in retirement, research from National Savings and Investments has revealed.
17 May 13
More than half of independent retailers in England think that their town centre is performing 'poorly' but 70 per cent think that better relationships with local authorities would improve the situation, according to research from the Federation of Small Businesses.
16 May 13
The Bank of England (BoE) has upgraded its UK economic outlook and said that inflation is now weaker than originally predicted three months ago.
15 May 13
Businesses in Northern Ireland are expecting a £40 million boost from the G8 Summit being held in County Fermanagh next month, research carried out by the Northern Ireland Centre for Economic Policy (NICEP) has found.
15 May 13
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the employment rate for those aged 16-64 fell by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of the year, when compared with the final three months of 2012.
14 May 13
Small firms in the UK are being encouraged to increase their online engagement in order to boost sales and employment growth.
13 May 13
A report by the Prime Minister's adviser on enterprise, Lord Young, has recommended removing the age cap on the Government's loan scheme for start-ups.
10 May 13
The base rate of interest has been held at 0.5 per cent and there will be no immediate increase in the Bank of England's quantitative easing asset purchase programme, after the latest meeting of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee.
09 May 13
The Government's plans for the new parliamentary session have been outlined in the Queen's Speech. Proposals of interest to businesses include those around national insurance contributions, consumer rights and deregulation.
08 May 13
A statement of principles that sets out steps UK businesses should take in order to improve the transparency and understanding of their tax affairs has been published by the Confederation of British Industry.
08 May 13
The value of retail sales in the UK was down by 2.2 per cent in April compared with April 2012, according to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium.
