Royal Mail has announced steep rises in the prices of stamps from 30 April 2012. The price of a first class stamp for a standard letter will rise from 46p to 60p and the cost of a second class stamp for a standard letter will rise from 36p to 50p.

A man has been jailed for 12 months for evading £91,000 of income tax and national insurance during ten years of trading as a self-employed plumber.

Employers are being urged to plan ahead for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holiday in June.

The government has announced that automatic pension enrolment rates are to be aligned with tax and national insurance thresholds, to streamline administration for businesses.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has delayed the introduction of a scheme under which it would recover its costs from businesses that break health and safety laws.

The government has launched a consultation on the new above the line (ATL) research and development (R&D) tax credit for larger companies, to help shape the way it should work when it is introduced in April 2013.