Consultation on tax certainty for major projects

This consultation is aimed at delivering a stable and predictable tax environment that will provide the confidence needed to support investment.

• The Corporate Tax Roadmap published in the Autumn Budget was a first step. It outlined the Government's commitment to creating a business tax environment where taxpayers are confident they understand the tax rules with which they are required to comply.

This builds on work already ongoing in relation to R&D tax reliefs and the Advance Assurance procedure, for instance, which aims to "reduce error and fraud, provide certainty to businesses, and improve the customer experience".

Despite work to date, the Government recognises the need to go further for the largest and most innovative investment projects, given their scale, complexity and range of tax implications. It is, therefore, consulting on a dedicated service, tailored to these types of projects, which provides statutory certainty over how the tax rules will be applied to a project if it proceeds as planned.

• Clarity for applicants means there needs to be a clear quantitative threshold to identify the largest and most significant projects.
• Safeguards will also be needed to prevent the inappropriate bundling of separate projects to meet the threshold level.
• HMRC's ability to recruit appropriate highly skilled tax professionals to deliver the service is a significant factor.
• An appropriate threshold level will ensure only dozens rather than hundreds of projects are serviced annually. It is likely the level will be for qualifying expenditure in the hundreds of millions.

Corporation Tax will be the core tax on which investors can seek advance certainty, but the case for expanding to incorporate other areas such as VAT, Stamp Taxes and Employer Duties will also be explored.

The consultation will run for twelve weeks and closes on 17 June 2025. The Government will consult relevant stakeholders and interested parties on the proposals through a series of meetings during the consultation period. Written responses can be sent by email.

The Government intends to implement the new process in 2026 and to set out primary legislation in a Finance Bill in advance of that deadline.

Useful guides on this topic

Corporate Tax Roadmap
In the Autumn Budget 2024, the Government published its Corporate Tax Roadmap (the 'Roadmap') which sets out its priorities in terms of company taxation with the aim of enhancing predictability, stability and certainty to build confidence and encourage investment and growth in the UK.

R&D consultation on advance clearance procedure
HMRC has launched a new consultation 'Research and Development tax relief advance clearances' which invites views on widening the use of clearances to avoid error and fraud.

External link

HM Treasury consultation: Advance tax certainty for major projects: Consultation on policy design

1. What is the impact of giving eligibility to corporate entities that are or will be subject to Corporation Tax and are directly undertaking major investment projects? Does this exclude any other structures investing in major projects which would significantly benefit from being in scope?
2. How can advance tax certainty provide material wider benefit beyond the entity receiving the clearance?
3. What is the best way of quantifying the fixed and intangible investment for the purposes of assessing whether a project meets the threshold? Do you agree that authorised project spend is a suitable metric?
4. Is there a set amount of expenditure that would prompt you to seek a clearance or certainty, or would this be more attributable to the amount of tax and uncertainty in treatment?
5. Are there supplementary criteria, which are objective and measurable, which could capture projects below the quantitative threshold which are nevertheless of a national or strategic importance, are highly impactful on a relative basis within their sector, or that have large growth potential despite starting small?
6. In which areas of UK tax legislation would advance tax certainty have the most impact on investment decisions? Where possible please give examples of where lack of certainty has had a negative effect on an investment decision.
7. Are there areas for which certainty would be of value that are not currently addressed by the non-statutory clearance process? What do you see as potential benefits and barriers to their inclusion?
8. Who do you consider should be bound by an advance certainty clearance and to what extent? What form should that take?
9. What are the circumstances under which you consider it important to be able to continue to rely on a clearance?
10. Do you consider that an early engagement facility would be helpful and why?
11. How would this process work with typical commercial decision-making timescales?
12. What facility would be helpful for unsuccessful clearance applications? Do you consider for example that the process should include reconsideration by HMRC on request?
13. Do you consider a scoping meeting to obtain clarity on the scope of clearance, timing and inputs to be useful? What would a scoping conversation need to include?
14. Are there process elements you would consider helpful during the clearance consideration phase?
15. What do you consider the advantages and disadvantages of publishing summarised and anonymised clearances to be? Has publication by other clearance jurisdictions aided tax certainty as a result?
16. What would you wish to see in terms of engagement for clearances where impacted post-issuance by legislation, ownership, case law or key facts and assumption changes?
17. What should a renewal process look like, and is five years an acceptable trigger point?