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Mark McLaughlin CTA (Fellow) ATT TEP laments an unhelpful approach by HM Revenue & Customs when certainty of tax treatment is sought. Mark McLaughlinWorth asking?In my experience, the technical specialists at HMRC Inheritance Tax have always been helpful, perhaps more so than the other HMRC specialist offices. They always seemed willing and able to agree or disagree on interpretations of ‘grey areas’ of the Inheritance Tax legislation where possible, and comment on their application ... Continue Reading

Matthew Hutton MA, CTA (fellow), AIIT, TEP, presenter of Monthly Tax Review (MTR), highlights a practical point on the two year time limit for making a main residence election for capital gains tax purposes.Matthew HuttonIntroductionA change of circumstances (starting to pay rent by virtue of TLATA 1996) does not bring about a new residence, causing HMRC to have to choose between the residences (in the absence of a taxpayer election). There is therefore no opportunity to create a fresh election.However, ... Continue Reading

Julie Butler FCA considers some important tax issues for property owners and investors.Julie ButlerIntroductionIt is fair to say that the “property owner” client sector forms a large part of the client base of all firms who advise on tax and there is great scope to attract new property clients to those firms.For the smaller organisations this type of client is interesting, varied, demanding and often unaware of potential tax problems, potential tax planning and potential tax savings.What ... Continue Reading

The Chancellor has announced that he will deliver his 2008 Budget to Parliament on Wednesday 12th March at 12.30pm. Continue Reading

The Government has announced that it plans to introduce legislation in the 2008 Finance Bill, taking effect from 31 January 2008, to prevent avoidance of income tax by means of arrangements involving manufactured payments.The legislation will provide that a deduction is not to be allowed for income tax purposes for any manufactured payment paid in connection with arrangements where the main or one of the main purposes is to secure allowance of a deduction or any other income tax advantage.The legislation ... Continue Reading

Taxvista, the cross-border knowledge community for taxation experts and eTaxJobs, the World’s largest tax jobs portal, have combined forces to help European tax professionals with their career planning.With effect from January 2008, Taxvista will host all of the global tax vacancies managed by eTaxJobs on its own new careers section. eTaxJobs’ clients include PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Shell, BP, Vodafone, IBM as well as all the leading tax and finance recruiters across the ... Continue Reading

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has welcomed an Early Day Motion (EDM) on income shifting that has been tabled in the House of Commons.The text of the EDM reads as follows:“That this House notes with concern the proposals for a new tax on income shifting; is aware of the disquiet expressed at the proposals by small businesses, the self-employed, freelancers, accountants and other affected parties; is concerned that the new tax will make it impossible for jointly-owned businesses ... Continue Reading

More than £2 million in VAT payments are due to be paid to the Exchequer from gangmaster businesses, thanks to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA).The money was identified during the first year of GLA operations (April 2006 - March 2007) and with a further 289 licence applications since this period the total of VAT payments is likely to increase.The GLA requires that all gangmasters who operate in the agriculture, shellfish gathering and food processing and packaging sectors are licensed ... Continue Reading

HMRC have issued a statement stating that speculation in the press concerning online services security is completely untrue.Following news coverage over the weekend which revealed that MPs and certain high profile individuals cannot file their tax returns online for security reasons HMRC have issued the following statement:"Some newspapers and broadcast media have claimed that HMRC's online filing systems are not secure because Members of Parliament and a small number of other taxpayers ... Continue Reading

Patrick Cannon, Barrister, outlines the backgound and basic principles of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) as it applies to partnerships.Patrick CannonPurpose and Basic PrinciplesPurposeThe anti-avoidance ethos that pervades the SDLT provisions is perhaps most apparent in the provisions applying SDLT to partnership transactions. The use of partnerships as vehicles to avoid stamp duty on sales of interests in commercial property was so widespread as to be the norm and this led to HMRC describing such vehicles ... Continue Reading