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If you thought Making Tax Digital was just bad, you haven’t been paying attention. It is horrendous, warns TaxationWeb's Lee Sharpe.  Let’s face it, forcing people to pay for something they didn’t ask for, don’t want and will cost them a fortune was always going to be hard to sell. To understand how bad MTD really is, it’s probably easier to start with the assumption that HMRC has little short of contempt for taxpayers, and positively hates agents. And then work ... Continue Reading

RSM UK's Andy Ilsley and George Bull with a Brexit VAT update If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, from 11pm GMT on 29 March 2019 many UK businesses will need to apply the same processes to EU trade that apply when trading with the rest of the world. HMRC has now published guidance on four aspects of this. While HMRC is going as far as it can to help affected businesses, this guidance does not apply to importing or exporting goods between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Here's a summary of ... Continue Reading

BKL's David Whiscombe explains why dates of issue and delivery of enquiry notices are important.   HMRC have an unfettered right to enquire into any tax return for any year.   However, there is a time limit for their doing so. When a return for a tax year has been filed on time (that is, in most cases, by 31 January following the end of the tax year) the time limit for giving a notice of enquiry expires on the anniversary of filing. If it’s filed late or is amended after filing, ... Continue Reading

Peter Vaines looks at two hot topics in his monthly tax update: HMRC's powers to require a deposit on account of tax, and the notorious EBT Loan Charge.   Security for PAYE/NIC I have previously made reference to the power of HMRC to require security for PAYE and NIC under the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 Part 4A and the corresponding part of the NIC Regulations. This is an awesome power. There are also analogous provisions for VAT in VATA 1994 Sch 11.The general idea is ... Continue Reading

Peter Vaines looks at the Budget 2018 amendments to Entrepreneurs' Relief and warns all is not necessarily what it seems. And a Tribunal case where HMRC wanted to hide its evidence from the taxpayer.   Entrepreneurs' Relief The changes proposed to Entrepreneurs’ Relief announced in the Budget in October sounded benign, but on further investigation of the Finance Bill 2019 they are not benign at all. However, there is a really helpful late amendment.   It may be remembered that ... Continue Reading

A quick look at some of the key findings of a reasonably deep dive into the legislation for the new cash basis for landlords: don’t do it! Introduction A Happy New Year to TW readers and my thoughts are with practitioners who toil through the Self Assessment January trials. Last year, Bloomsbury asked me to update some of my chapters in the Buy To Let Property Tax Handbook for their online reference library. To do so, I had to contend with: Making Tax Digital (and regular readers will ... Continue Reading

RSM's Andrew Hubbard warns of potential conflict over the Finance Bill, thanks to Brexit. Update - the amendment was approved, such that the government's taxing powers are restricted in the event of a "no-deal Brexit" Ahead of tomorrow’s parliamentary debate on the Finance Bill, one minor technical clause has the potential to create real problems for the government. Clause 89 is headed ‘minor amendments in consequence of EU withdrawal’, which could also be called a ‘keeping ... Continue Reading

BKL's David Whiscombe gives some timely reminders on corporate partnerships.   For those who are dealing with tax returns of corporate partnerships, here are two pieces of information: one a warning and the other a reassurance. In what follows, “partnership” should be taken to include LLP; and we use “corporate partner” as a shorthand to include any non-individual partner.   The Warning In any corporate partnership (by which we mean a partnership involving at ... Continue Reading

BKL's David Whiscombe welcomes an HMRC rethink on Entrepreneurs' Relief. We recently drew attention to the effect on “alphabet shares” of the changes to the Entrepreneurs’ Relief rules set out in the current Finance Bill. Happily, the government seems to have listened to the widespread concerns: just before Christmas, amendments to the proposals were announced. Under the amended provisions, a company will be your “personal company” if (in addition to holding at least ... Continue Reading

RSM's Shirley McIntosh considers the likely impact of the Scottish Budget, and points out that some taxpayers can use the regime to be taxed at more favourable Westminster rates. Scotland’s finance secretary has already alluded to the possibility of further rate increases for higher taxpayers in Scotland – but at what level of divergence is tolerable for Scottish taxpayers? Due to tax reform changes in last year’s Budget, Scottish taxpayers earning more than £33,000 already ... Continue Reading