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HMRC officers have seized 2,000 bottles of wine from a commercial premises south of Newry today.The action comes as part of the department's involvement in a E1m, EU-wide excise duty and VAT fraud investigation by the Republic of Ireland's Revenue Commissioners. Derek Dubery, Acting Assistant Director, Criminal Investigation, said: "Today's operation has resulted in a recovery of a relatively small amount of alcohol. But this is the tip of a much larger fraud involving alcohol being ... Continue Reading

Peter Arrowsmith FCA highlights a selection of NIC matters, and provides a useful practical point on NIC 'Directives'.£600 tax changeNot until 9 June was there any official confirmation that - as I had expected - there would be no changes to NIC thresholds for the current year. Indeed, there is not even any commitment to restore the meaningless 'harmonisation' of the Earnings Threshold with the tax personal allowance next April. This is rather ironic given the continuing passage ... Continue Reading

David Whiscombe of BKL Tax outlines a potentially useful exception to the normal rules on company tax return filing dates and penalties, and highlights a recent tax case that underlines the importance of paying attention to detail.   David WhiscombeFine points of filingEveryone knows that if a company is entitled to an extended Companies House filing deadline, the same extension is applied for Corporation Tax filing.  Historically, this has perhaps most often applied where a company has overseas ... Continue Reading

Matthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEP, Presenter of Monthly Tax Review (MTR), highlights a potential difficulty concerning inheritance tax agricultural property relief claims involving farmhouses. Matthew HuttonContext The following points were made in a lecture by me at IBC’s IHT and Trusts Conference in London on 22 May 2008.  The latest movesFollowing the most recent farmhouse case (Arnander), there have been indications that at least some offices within HMRC Inheritance Tax are ... Continue Reading

European Commission proposals to allow VAT cuts on labour intensive and locally-provided services have been welcomed by the UK’s Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which called on the UK to support and implement the tax cuts.The European Commission has put forward proposals that would allow member state governments to reduce the rate of VAT on services that are provided locally and are labour intensive.These would include housing services, such as construction, maintenance and cleaning; ... Continue Reading

Recent discussions have suggested that there is some uncertainty over the current HMRC views on Extra Statutory Concession A11 (split year treatment) and its application to ITEPA 2003, Part 7.This ESC is likely to be replaced by legislation at some point, partly because a review of extra-statutory concessions is in progress, but also because the Government announced during debates on the Finance Bill its willingness to consider the possibility of a statutory residence test. However, to cover the ... Continue Reading

Julie Butler FCA outlines some tax planning opportunities and pitfalls concerning tax losses Julie ButlerIntroduction The 2008 Budget has drawn attention to the importance of the review of tax loss claim compliance and planning. Legislation will be introduced in the Finance Bill 2008 as follows:To counteract the use of contrived arrangements that generate trade losses which may be claimed as sideways relief or capital gains relief (“sideways loss relief”) by an individual, other ... Continue Reading

Mark McLaughlin CTA (Fellow) ATT TEP outlines anti-avoidance rules that can affect sales and certain other transactions involving shares.Mark McLaughlinTransactions in securitiesShare transactions such as a company purchase of its own shares or a company sale for consideration which includes loan notes commonly involve applications to HMRC for advance clearance (under ITA 2007, s 701), that the ‘transactions in securities’ anti-avoidance rules do not apply. The rules are in ITA 2007, ... Continue Reading

Steve Allen, Director of VAT Solutions (UK) Ltd, reports a further selection of recent VAT decisions.Steve AllenTribunal allows partial bad debt relief claim even though payments were non-specificThe claimant had rendered its VAT returns showing the output tax due on all its supplies, including the unpaid invoices that were the subject of the claim. However as it had gone into liquidation it had not settled the liability shown as payable to HMRC on those returns. HMRC therefore refused the bad debt ... Continue Reading

TaxationWeb is pleased to announce that a leading tax commentator is to become a regular columnist and contributor to the site.Richard Murphy is a well-known adviser and campaigner on tax policy issues. He is a regular radio and TV commentator on tax and corporate accountability, whose articles have appeared in a wide range of professional journals. He wrote for the Observer on taxation issues for a number of years. Richard also writes a popular daily blog on tax-related matters. Mark McLaughlin, ... Continue Reading