Taking the everyday meaning of purdah one could be forgiven for thinking it has nothing to do with government or tax. But it does. Whilst the traditional religious meaning effectively symbolises the drawing of a curtain, in Government practice this symbolises the drawing of that curtain over a pre-election period. Specifically the time between an announced election or dissolution of parliament and the final election results.

That time period prevents central and local government from making announcements about any new or controversial government initiatives (such as modernisation initiatives or administrative and legislative changes) which could be seen to be advantageous to any candidates or parties in the forthcoming election. And that includes tax.

At the time of writing, we are currently in a period of purdah in the UK. As a result, during this time, there are restrictions placed on the activity of Government departments, so as to remain impartial before the election. As such, we might expect to see less UK tax technical news and guidance being released in this period.

With the general election on 7 May 2015, tax received a lot of media coverage. This, though, was largely focused on the various tax policies contained in the party manifestos: a lot less came from Government departments and HMRC.

What HMRC view as not subject to purdah tends to be “straightforward” operational issues, generally where legislation has already been enacted. For example, HMRC published the latest Employer’s Bulletin during the purdah period. This bi-monthly magazine for employers and agents gives up-to-date information on payroll topics. On the other hand, we were contacted to advise that the next Agent Update which was due for publication in April will not be published until at least 21 May, subject to a new Government being formed by then. These updates tend to be non-controversial so we’ll be watching this one with interest.