HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced that it is entering into data-sharing arrangements with local authorities to help clamp down on council tax debt. In the 2017/18 tax year, councils in England had an £818 million deficit for council tax arrears, which has prompted HMRC to work with local authorities by sharing information about… Read more…

The controversial introduction of the VAT reverse charge in the construction sector has been postponed by a year and will now take place on 1 October 2020, following concerns that the industry wasn’t ready for this monumental change. The new VAT reverse charge had been due to come into force on 1 October this year,… Read more…

Email scams have become increasingly common, with fraudsters claiming to be from companies, banks and even HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to obtain your data and bank details. The fraud, which is also known as a phishing scam, can also involve malicious software that can infect your device with a virus. To stay protected, here… Read more…

The latest official data from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) shows that the actual cash collected from all tax investigations hit £13 billion in 2018/19. This was up 27 per cent from the previous tax year in which £10.3 billion was collected. The data also showed that transfer pricing fines for multinationals have risen to… Read more…

Half of all small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make errors when filing their VAT returns, according to the latest research. The data also revealed that just 27 per cent of small businesses are confident that they have filed their return correctly, even though they have spent more than an hour checking their figures. The first online… Read more…

Some of the UK’s top retail stores, including Asda and Boots, have joined the fight against spiralling business rates. It comes after many leading retail bodies published a letter calling for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, to address tax rules to boost the UK high street. The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) joined… Read more…

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has reassured the 120,000 businesses that failed to meet the 7 August deadline for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT that the tax authority will not be issuing fines to them for missing the date. Under MTD, all businesses with a turnover of £85,000 or more must keep computer-based records… Read more…

Taxpayers are actively encouraged by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to inform the tax authority if they realise that they did not pay the correct tax at any time in the past. This process is known as a voluntary disclosure and will usually allow a taxpayer to settle their affairs and settle any underpayment without… Read more…

The response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has revealed that as many as one in four estates that are liable for IHT are investigated each year. In 2018-19, more than 5,500 investigations were launched by HMRC into the approximately 22,000 estates that had to pay the tax. Despite the introduction of the Residence… Read more…

The start of the next tax year in April 2020 will see key changes come into effect in respect of Principal Private Residence Relief (PPR) and Lettings Relief, both of which can be used to soften the impact of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on property disposals. From next April, Lettings Relief will be restricted to… Read more…