This month’s UK tax tidbits
Updated forms and guidance feature this month.
- Agent Update 71 has recently been published.
- The latest Employer Bulletin is available.
- Use updated form P11D WS5 if you’re an employer and need to work out the cash equivalent of providing relocation expenses and benefits to an employee.
- Local authorities and similar bodies (VAT Notice 749) has been updated.
- SI 2019 No. 658 The Tonnage Tax (Exception of Financial Year 2019) was issued on 25 March. This confirms that the UK’s tonnage tax flagging test will not have effect in financial year 2019.
- As promised at Budget 2018, HMRC have now published a consultation document entitled ‘Preventing abuse of the R&D tax relief for SMEs’. To help prevent abuse of the SME scheme, the amount of payable tax credit that a qualifying loss-making business can receive through the relief in any one accounting period will be capped
- The guidance to use the online service for pension scheme administrators and practitioners has been updated.
- The list of professional bodies approved for tax relief has been updated.
- Details of the latest phishing scams have been published – HMRC have also issued a press release highlighting some particular scams targeted at the young and elderly.
- CA38: National Insurance contributions tables A, H, J, M and Z has been updated
- The list of mortgage providers and lenders who accept a SA302 tax calculation and a tax year overview has been updated
- The latest Employment Related Securities Bulletin 31 (March 2019) is available
- Disclosing VAT and other indirect tax avoidance schemes (VAT Notice 799) has been updated
- Admit tax fraud to HMRC using the Contractual Disclosure Facility and Ask HMRC for a Contractual Disclosure Facility arrangement (Form CDF1) have both been updated
- Check the status of tax policy consultations has been updated
- The latest list of deliberate tax defaulters has been published
- On Thursday 4 April 2019 the House of Lords debated two reports from the Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee: The Powers of HMRC: Treating Taxpayers Fairly and Making Tax Digital for VAT: Treating Small Businesses Fairly.
- Revenue and Customs Brief 12 (2018): refunds of VAT in the UK for non-EU businesses explains changes for verifying claims for VAT refunds submitted by non-EU businesses under the Overseas Refund Scheme.
- HMRC have published a new spotlight (Spotlight 50) which deals with asset transfer arrangements set up to avoid the new loan charge. Manually calculate deductions due on the loan charge has also been published. Report and account for your disguised remuneration loan charge has also been updated.
- The latest Pension schemes newsletter has been published.
- The following VAT and customs publications and documents have been updated:- Contact lists of providers who support Customs Freight Simplified Procedures, Apply to use simplified procedures for import or export (C&E48), New means of transport (VAT Notice 728), VAT Notice 701/49: finance and Import VAT relief for goods supplied onward to another country in the EC (VAT Notice 702/7)
- The Scottish Government has published a consultation on devolved taxes which examines a new approach to the planning, management and implementation of the fully devolved taxes in Scotland.
- Use P9X to find out which PAYE tax codes to change, how to change them and which codes to carry forward ready for the new tax year.
- Check the updated list of approved payers for foreign entertainers
- CWG2: further guide to PAYE and National Insurance contributions has been updated
- The most recent HMRC performance reports have been published:- HMRC monthly performance reports and HMRC monthly performance report: January 2019
- Check out the updated Energy Technology Product List for the latest items which qualify for the Enhanced Capital Allowance tax scheme.
- General information about compliance checks: CC/FS1a has been updated
- The following documents and publications relevant to VAT and customs have been updated:- Notice 760: Customs Freight Simplified Procedures (CFSP), Notice 117: Authorised Economic Operator, Authorised Economic Operator for imports and exports VAT guide (VAT Notice 700), Authorised Economic Operator application C117, Self-Assessment questionnaire C118 (CIP8) and Excise warehousing: application to be a duty representative (EX64)
- The Welsh Government and the National Assembly for Wales became responsible for some of the taxes paid in Wales in April 2018, with additional powers coming into effect last week from 6 April 2019.
- Protecting your taxes in insolvency is a consultation outlining how HMRC’s new status will differ from existing rules when a business goes into insolvency
- From 6 April 2019, HMRC will no longer require changes to prior year payroll figures to be submitted by way of an earlier year update (EYU). The EYU will be used less frequently, although this will depend on the payroll software used.
- HMRC has updated its benchmark scale rate expenses rates for accommodation and subsistence payments to employees effective from 6 April 2019
- The Welsh Finance Minister has announced the Welsh Government’s Tax Policy Work Plan for 2019
- HMRC will be replacing its iForms and print and send paper forms in the coming months to meet new accessibility standards.
- Kathryn Cearns OBE has been appointed as new Chair of the Office of Tax Simplification
- HMRC has issued Revenue and Customs Brief 1 (2019) which announces a change from 1 June 2019 to the VAT treatment of personal contract purchases and similar contracts, which were previously viewed as supplies of goods and a separate supply of credit
- The 1 April 2019 changes to probate fees have been delayed due to pressure on parliamentary time. The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that once the motion is approved, the new probate fee regime would come into effect 21 days later and not on 1 April as originally planned. The relevant Statutory Instrument was laid before parliament in February. Guidance on the change is also available