The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has written to HMRC with new views on the introduction of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA), including the conclusion that quarterly reporting is a disproportionate administrative burden. It echoes the concerns of other leading tax bodies and calls for a re-think.
SME Tax News
HMRC say they're extending the trial of using text messages to redirect helpline callers to online services. They claim this method is a successful one as 38% of taxpayers do not phone back.
In Edward Lam Shang Leen v HMRC [2023] TC8812, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) dismissed an appeal against a Schedule 36 information notice that required a doctor's Personal Service Company to provide it with details of consultancy income received via the company.
In Louis Daniel Moore v HMRC [2023] TC8806, the First Tax Tribunal (FTT) dismissed a claim that an award of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) was received as consideration for the disposal of shares in a takeover. The evidence revealed that they were no more than an incentive offered to retain senior employees of the business and as such they were employment-related securities options.
In David McLean & Ors v Andrew Thornhill KC [2023] EWCA Civ 466, the Court of Appeal held that the barrister advising promoters of a film partnership tax scheme owed no duty of care to investors who used the scheme. The investors should have taken their own independent tax advice.
The Co-operatives, Mutuals and Friendly Societies Bill is currently passing through parliament. The government has announced that it is supporting this legislation seeking to protect the assets of mutual entities, by making them non-distributable and only available for prescribed purposes.
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In this week's update, we are having a deep dive into HMRC's Tax Administration and Maintenance day documents and consultations. 'TAM' day was last Thursday and we have made you an 'At a glance summary' so you can decide whether you want to learn more.
In Toby Hextall v HMRC [2023] TC8804, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) found discovery assessments looking to reclaim unpaid High Income Child Benefit Charge were not valid as they had been raised out of normal assessment time limits. The taxpayer had acted reasonably, despite not registering for self-assessment
On its 'Tax Administration and Maintenance Day', last week, the government published a number of tax policy proposals and consultations to support its plan to simplify and modernise the tax system, tackle non-compliance and make the tax system fairer. We take a closer look at some of the new proposals. Next week we will look at proposals for developing the tax administration framework.
HMRC's new 'The Tax Administration Framework review – information and data', explores options for substantially widening and updating HMRC information and data-gathering powers. These include new powers co-joining data information requests from both companies and their owners, and amending its powers to allow it to obtain data from cloud applications and data centres.
We have summarised the key points of in the consultation, it's worth reading to the bottom, as the intended powers ramp up as the document progresses.