(Almost) no sooner has the Finance Bill formally introduced the long-awaited tax incentive for the video games industry, than the European Commission has voiced concerns that it may not pass the stringent EU State Aid rules.

In a press release entitled, State Aid: UK Video Games Tax Relief Faces Commission Scrutiny the European Commission considers that there is no “obvious market failure” which needs to be addressed and “doubts that the aid is necessary”. This is somewhat surprising at this stage, given that the Treasury has apparently been consulting on the relief for many months – George Osborne was talking about the relief as far back as April 2012.

The Commission appears also to be concerned that the introduction of the incentive in the UK might “fuel a subsidy race” between Member States. This likewise seems odd, given that France has had a similar tax relief for several years – although it’s hardly a race while there’s only one runner, eh?

To be fair, when France’s tax relief was up for renewal in 2011/12, it was apparently subjected to comprehensive review, before approval. But having so carefully made that decision, why labour it again?

And then we come to the recent announcement that the UK intends to challenge the new Financial Transaction Tax through the European Courts. Horse trade, anyone?

HM Revenue & Customs has published an update on its website, Online Filing of Company Tax Returns: Two Years On. It starts off by acknowledging “this was a considerable challenge for all concerned”. (At this point, one might wonder what descriptions will be used two years on from the mandatory introduction of Real Time Information).

It goes on to confirm that there will be no major change to the iXBRL tagging requirement this year but that it will introduce a new taxonomy for the detailed profit and loss account, later in 2013.

As regards the ‘soft landing’ that HMRC introduced for the first two years of iXBRL filing, the update appears contradictory. On the one hand it says “there will be no sudden change to that approach”, but on the other, “partial or inaccurate tagging makes it more likely that a return will be selected for detailed risk analysis, leading to a compliance check”. If there is to be no sudden change, then this arguably sits a little at odds with the previous assurance that “HMRC will not open Corporation Tax enquiries solely or mainly to check the quality of XBRL tagging.” (Mandatory Online Filing of Company Tax Returns: Managing the Transition)But some movement is to be expected: the landing cannot be ‘soft’ forever.

The update also advises that new developments in accounting standards (FRSs 101 & 102; the EU Micros Directive) mean that further tax-driven reporting changes will be temporarily abated.