SME Tax News

The chancellor announced in his 2015 Autumn Statement that the government will not proceed with certain changes to working tax credits and child tax credits.

Anti-avoidance measures were introduced by Finance Act 2016 to:

• Enable the disposal value of plant and machinery to be amended where one of the main purposes of the transaction is to obtain a tax advantage by receiving a reduced balancing charge or increased allowance.
• Ensure that where a company takes over a lease from another person, and receives a tax deduction for payments made under that lease, that the company will always be charged to tax on any amount that it receives in return for taking over that lease.

This measure applies to transactions that take place on or after 25 November 2015 and affects businesses who: 

• Manipulate disposal values leading to increased capital allowances, or
• Receive non taxable consideration for agreeing to take over tax deductible lease payments.

The payment timings of Capital Gain Tax (CGT) on a disposal of residential property will change from April 2019 according to HMRC's Autumn Statement documents.

The chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that the government will invest £1.3 billion in HMRC's new quarterly reporting tax revolution.

In his 2015 Autumn Statement the chancellor announced a new exemption from a loans to participators charge when loans are made by close companies to the trustees of charities.

HMRC has published a consultation, Cash, tax evasion and the hidden economy: a call for evidence, it is seeking the views of businesses and individuals on the role of cash in the economy.

In Burgess & Anor v HMRC [2015] the Upper Tribunal (UT) found that HMRC had failed to discharge its burden of proof in making discovery assessments.

In The Queen on the application of Ralph Hely-Hutchinson v HMRC, a taxpayer was successful in judicial review over HMRC's tax treatment of his Mansworth v Jelly loss claims.