Latest From Mundy & Co.

UK vacancies fall to lowest level since 2014 as hiring slows

The UK jobs market showed fresh signs of strain in the latest labour market figures, published by the Office for National Statistics on 18 August 2026. Job vacancies fell to an estimated 707,000 in the three months to July, down 6,000 (0.8%) on the previous quarter. Outside the pandemic period, that’s the lowest vacancy count […]

HMRC remind parents to use the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme

HMRC is using Playday, the national day for play, to remind working parents about Tax-Free Childcare scheme, which can help eligible families meet the cost of nurseries, childminders, holiday clubs, breakfast clubs and after-school clubs. Employers can also support working parents by promoting the scheme. It can help improve employee wellbeing, especially during school holidays. Childcare […]

Date of Budget 2026 announced

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, has announced that Budget 2026 will be presented on 28 October 2026. Announcing the date, the Chancellor said that the Budget will ‘move money and power out of Westminster, and into every postcode around Britain’. He also stressed that the government would continue to meet its fiscal rules, […]

HMRC contacts self-employed people about National Insurance gaps

HMRC is writing to some self-employed individuals whose National Insurance (NI) records may contain gaps that could affect their State Pension. If you receive a letter, don’t ignore it. In some cases, you may be able to boost your State Pension by making voluntary NI contributions for missing years going back as far as 2015-16. […]

Do you need to pay tax on your side hustle?

Many people have turned a hobby into a side hustle. If that’s you, it’s worth checking whether you need to pay tax on the money you earn. With wedding season in full swing, some people earn extra income by designing wedding stationery, filming first dances, baking cakes, or offering other creative services. If you earn […]

HMRC is watching you

Companies and individuals that are careless or even illegal in their tax affairs need to watch out. New figures show that HMRC has paid out £1.4 million in rewards to whistleblowers of tax illegality. A record number of reports were made to HMRC in the 2025-26 tax year, hitting 170,992. The last Budget saw the […]

Expansion of SME growth scheme

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves has announced an expansion of the British Business Bank’s (BBB) Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS). This provides a 70% government guarantee on commercial loans to SMEs of up to £2 million, cutting credit risk. The changes will enable the scheme to scale up with an additional £2 billion of Small to Medium-sized […]

Britain’s yearly £44m health & safety violations bill

A new Freedom of Information (FOI) request has discovered that health and safety violations cost British employers over £44 million per year. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that serious breaches have resulted in an increasing number of prosecutions between 2023 and 2025. The figures show that between 2021 and 2025, the average annual fines […]

Small businesses account for two-thirds of Britain’s tax shortfall

The latest figures from HMRC reveal that the Treasury had a substantial £59.2 billion shortfall from unpaid taxes for the tax year 2024-2025. The ‘Measuring tax gaps 2026 edition’ found that the tax gap, which measures the difference between the amount of tax expected to be paid and what was actually collected, stood at an estimated […]

Look twice to spot bad tax advice

HMRC’s ‘Don’t get caught out‘ campaign encourages contractors working through umbrella companies to take a closer look at their circumstances and watch out for tax avoidance. Contractors can use HMRC’s online guidance and tools to learn about tax avoidance, to understand how they are paid and how to check if the right amount of tax […]