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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

BP said its third-quarter earnings would be lower than expected when it reports at the end of October, on weak margins at its refineries, lower output from its oilfields and higher exploration write-offs.

Giacomo Romeo, an analyst at Jefferies, said he expected consensus earnings would now be about 10 per cent lower than the $2.3bn previously forecast.

BP said it had taken hits of up to $1.1bn across its businesses and that net debt would be higher than expected, partly because some of its divestment proceeds would fall into the subsequent quarter.

The oil major’s share price has lagged behind its peers and is down more than 12 per cent in the year to date.

This is a developing story

THOUSANDS of taxpayers have been warned not to miss a fast-approaching HMRC deadline or they could face fines of £100.

There are just three weeks left to submit a paper self-assessment tax return with the final cut-off point on October 31.

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The assessment is used by the government body to collect income tax.

This tax is usually deducted automatically from people’s wages, pensions and savings.

However, people and businesses with extra income must report it in a tax return.

Many people choose to complete this process online through the HMRC website as the online deadline is not until January 31, 2025.

But if you want to submit your tax return via the post you must complete it by October 31.

In some instances submitting a physical tax return is your only option, especially if you need to fill in the foreign income and gains, or the trust and estate pages.

This is because these forms are not available online.

If you sell clothes or other items on websites such as eBay or Vinted you might want to make note of the date.

That is because since the beginning of 2024, firms like Vinted have to pass on customer data to HMRC if a user sells 30 or more items, or earns over £1,700, in a year.

While the reporting rules have changed, this is not a new tax.

Those who earn more than £1,000 outside their regular employment were already required to file a Self Assessment tax form with HMRC.

It is worth bearing in mind that HMRC will fine you for failing to file your return by the deadline.

Then, a £10 daily fine applies every day you don’t submit your tax return.

Alastair Douglas, chief executive of TotallyMoney said it is important people do not get “caught out”.

The financial professional said people struggling with learning difficulties such as autism or dyslexia should contact HMRC’s extra support team for assistance. 

He explained: “They’re specially trained, and can guide you through the process with a video appointment or phone call — you’ll just need to mention your situation when contacting the HMRC helpline or webchat.”

Do I have to pay tax on my second-hand sales?

Sellers on apps such as eBay and Vinted my be required to pay tax.

If you have made 30 sales or £1,700 this year you will be contacted by Vinted and asked to submit the seller report form on the app.

This year, the company said it will only approach new sellers who registered in 2024.

If you do not hear from Vinted then you don’t need to do anything, though you may need to file a tax return for other reasons separately.

Users who meet the criteria will be asked to add their National Insurance Number to a pre-filled form and check the details are correct before submitting it.

This will be done on the Vinted app.

You don’t need to calculate or count anything yourself.

A Vinted spokesperson said: “Reporting members’ details to the authorities does not necessarily lead to taxation.

“Taxation is a separate matter that doesn’t depend on HMRC reporting.”

They added: “HMRC requires Vinted to collect information from members who meet the criteria mentioned above, regardless of whether or not their earnings are taxable.”

Vinted said that it will be getting in contact with users who need to fill out these forms towards the end of the year.

What that means in practice is that money you make may be reported to the taxman if it’s over the amounts above.

Whether or not you have to pay tax will depend on your wider circumstances.

The majority of people pay income tax automatically through employment via what’s known as PAYE.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Speaking behind the thick white walls of Moscow’s ancient Danilov Monastery, Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk is adamant: people must not be forbidden to pray in their chosen branch of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

He speaks calmly but Yakimchuk is one of many Orthodox Christians in Russia who are angry about a law passed by Kyiv in August that targets a Russia-linked Orthodox church that long dominated religious life in Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration accuses the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of spreading pro-Russian propaganda in time of war and of housing spies, charges it denies.

Under the law, the Russian Orthodox Church itself was banned on Ukrainian territory and a government commission was tasked with compiling a list of “affiliated” organisations – expected to include the UOC – whose activities will be outlawed too.

“In the 21st century, in the centre of Europe, millions of people are being deprived of their basic civil rights,” Yakimchuk, wearing a black cassock and a large Orthodox cross around his neck, told Reuters in an interview.

“Because what does it mean to ban a church, which is the largest religious denomination in Ukraine, no matter how much the current Ukrainian authorities would like to downplay its scale? Everyone understands perfectly well that it is impossible to forbid people to pray.”

Whether the UOC retains the following it once did is disputed. An independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) that was set up after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 to be fully independent of Moscow has seen its popularity grow rapidly since President Vladimir Putin sent his forces into Ukraine in 2022.

Ukrainian authorities say the UOC is fair game. They have launched dozens of criminal proceedings, including treason charges, against dozens of its clergy. At least one has been sent to Russia as part of a prisoner swap.

CHURCH DIVIDED

However, Yakimchuk’s denunciation of what he calls “absolute lawlessness” in Ukraine is a reflection of how the nearly 32-month war – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – has divided Orthodox hierarchies in the two countries, even though they all adhere to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

The UOC tried to distance itself from Moscow once the war was underway, condemning Russia’s actions and removing references to the “Moscow Patriarchate” from its name.

But those attempts angered clerics in Moscow, who have thrown their weight behind what they cast as Russia’s “holy war” in Ukraine against the expanding influence of what they see as a decadent, godless West. The UOC’s efforts also failed to allay Kyiv’s concerns about the church’s activities and loyalties.

The process of shutting down UOC operations in Ukraine – something one Ukrainian lawmaker called “cleansing” – is likely to be lengthy and involve court battles but the church’s days seem numbered. Some opinion polls suggest more than 80% of Ukrainians do not trust the UOC.

The Kremlin, which has forged close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, has described Ukraine’s new law as “an open attack on freedom of religion”.

One Russian Orthodox priest in St Petersburg, Leonid Trofimuk, branded Ukraine’s action as “Satanism” and compared it to Soviet-era state repression of religion.

“The 20th century is behind us,” he said. “We saw the persecution of the church at that time, but we didn’t think that there would be this kind of persecution that is going on now in Ukraine.”

Ordinary Russian churchgoers interviewed by Reuters also expressed concern.

“There is a kind of total politicization of matters of faith going on,” said Sergei, a St. Petersburg resident. “I would like common sense to prevail and the international community to finally pay attention.”

His criticism of Kyiv’s moves was echoed by churchgoers leaving a golden onion-domed church more than 900 miles (1,448 km) away to the south, in Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city seized by Russian forces in 2022 after a long siege.

“This is wrong, you shouldn’t do this kind of thing,” said Olga, a Mariupol resident who was wearing a head scarf.

“How can he (Zelenskiy) interfere with faith in God? This is not a matter for the state.”

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Global rules on how much liquid assets banks should have need to be adjusted in response to last year’s collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and rescue of Credit Suisse, international regulators have said.

The world’s top banking supervisors pledged in a report published on Friday to examine ways to strengthen liquidity rules for the sector after identifying several areas where they fell short in last year’s crisis.

“Liquidity supervision may need to evolve in light of recent experience,” the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which sets global regulatory standards for the sector, said in a report to the G20 group of industrialised nations.

Over a fortnight in March 2023, banks with total assets of about $900bn were shut down, put into receivership or rescued — including Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Credit Suisse. A few weeks later, First Republic Bank was closed with nearly $230bn of assets.

The speed of the upheaval that swept through the banking sector last year left regulators questioning whether the rules they agreed to shore up the sector after the 2008 financial crisis were working as intended and if they needed improving.

“All of the distressed banks during the 2023 banking turmoil experienced a series of liquidity shocks,” the committee said. Even though many of the banks hit hardest were not subject to global rules, the regulators said “the turmoil raised questions about the design and calibration of the Basel III liquidity standards”.

The Basel committee said last year’s turmoil also exposed “the role of social media and the digitalisation of finance in hastening the speed and impact of a bank’s distress”. It suggested that regulators could require banks with a “structural high-risk liquidity profile” to report their liquidity positions more often.

In particular, the report said the problems at Credit Suisse before its rescue by rival UBS had revealed how a bank could struggle to sell liquid assets to pay depositors when they rush to pull their cash out.

The Basel regime requires global banks to have at least enough assets that can be easily sold — such as central bank deposits — to cover 30 days of net cash outflows during a hypothetical stressed scenario.

Credit Suisse comfortably met this requirement until shortly before customers pulled out almost a quarter of its assets in only a few days and pushed it to the brink of collapse.

The bank turned out to be unable to sell many assets it had identified to cover this requirement either because they were reserved for other purposes, such as daily liquidity needs, or because they were difficult to transfer to the entity where they were needed.

The report said Credit Suisse was also reluctant to sell its liquid assets because this would have taken it below the required level and triggered a need to disclose this to investors, which could have further eroded confidence in the bank.

Another problem it identified at the failed US banks, such as Silicon Valley Bank, was that they were reluctant to sell many liquid assets they had to deal with potential cash outflows because this would have forced them to crystallise unrecorded losses.

US banks were accounting for these assets, such as government bonds, on the basis they would be held to maturity. This meant they did not have to take losses when the assets fell in value, unless they were sold.

The banks seemed to assume they could cash in the assets via repo markets — in which they are pledged as security for a loan. But the report said “in such scenarios repo markets may stop functioning smoothly” making them “an unreliable source of contingent liquidity”.

The Basel committee said it would continue “prioritising work to strengthen supervisory effectiveness and identify issues that could merit additional guidance at a global level”.