Draft legislation and policy documents have just been published for 21 new tax measures. we uncover the important bits and highlight any nasty surprises.
Consultation period
These measures will form the backbone of the Finance Bill 2019-20 which will become FA 2020, assuming it is passed in March 2020. Most of the new tax law is due to take effect from 1 or 6 April 2020 but the details and commencement dates could be changed following this consultation, which closes on 5 September 2019.
In addition, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed by the new Prime Minister may well have fresh ideas on whether these proposals should be implemented as drafted. There is also a significant risk of a general election being called before Spring 2020, so goodness knows who will be in charge then and what their views will be on these proposed changes.
We have sorted the proposals into categories: important, interesting and surprising.
There are other proposals we haven’t expanded on here: the tweaking of EIS rules, the measurement of CO2 for car benefit and VED purposes, IHT on excluded property added to trusts, and corporation tax relief for transitional leasing adjustments.
Important
Off-payroll working
This is the reform of the IR35 rules for the private sector, which will largely mirror the changes introduced for public sector contracts in April 2017. It is clear that the helpful suggestions made during the consultation on these rules have not been taken on board, apart from small tinkering around the edges.
Residential property
Many people believe they have an automatic right to receive a tax-free gain when they sell their home, but that CGT exemption only exists because it is provided by main residence relief. This applies for periods in which the owner is in occupation or is deemed to be in occupation. The proposed changes to CGT for homeowners were announced in Budget 2018.
The draft law confirms the following changes will apply from 6 April 2020:
- cut in the final period of deemed occupation from 18 months to 9 months
- removal of lettings relief for periods when the owner is not also in occupation
- exemption history not transferred with property ownership to spouse
- deemed occupation at start of ownership to be limited to 24 months (currently concession D49)
- late claims for nomination of main residence clarified (currently concession D21)
Lettings relief is very valuable as it can be worth up to £40,000 per owner per property. It is often claimed by landlords who let out their former home instead of selling when they move up the property ladder.
From 6 April 2020, very few sellers will qualify for lettings relief and any accrued lettings relief will be lost, as no apportionment can be made between gains attributable to pre and post 6 April 2020 disposals.
The cut in the final period of deemed occupation is likely to hit owners who leave the home for unplanned reasons before sale, such as a lengthy hospital stay. If the owner or spouse moves into a residential care-home or is disabled, the final deemed period of occupation remains at 36 months.Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Anti-avoidance rules
No Finance Bill is complete without some anti-avoidance legislation. This year the general anti-abuse rule (GAAR), which was supposed stem the tide of anti-avoidance legislation (it didn’t), is itself amended to allow HMRC longer to collect evidence in order to make a GAAR adjustment.
A new anti-avoidance rule is proposed to tackle the misuse of company insolvencies to avoid payment of tax. The directors and other people connected to a company may be made jointly and severally liable for tax debts owed by the company when it is subject to an insolvency procedure. However, all of the following conditions must also apply:
- the company has engaged in tax avoidance or evasion
- the person was responsible for the company’s conduct, enabled or facilitated it, or benefited from it
- there is likely to be a tax liability arising from the tax avoidance or evasion
- there is a serious possibility some or all of that tax liability will not be paid
There are also provisions to discourage the phoenixism of companies to avoid tax debts.
These measures will take effect for tax periods ending on or after the date the Finance Bill 2019/20 is passed, and for penalties determined and issued after that date.
Interesting
Corporate capital losses
Where capital losses are carried forward by a company and set against gains that arise on or after 1 April 2020, only 50% of those gains will be available to set against losses. This will only apply where the £5m loss deductions allowance has already been used. Various sectors are excluded such as oil and gas, real estate investment trusts (REITS) and insurance.
Blood bikes
Vehicle excise duty (VED) or road tax is paid on most road vehicles except for cars classified as vintage and emergency vehicles such as police cars and ambulances. From April 2020 blood bikes and other vehicles used by medical courier charities to transport medical products will be exempt from VED if they are registered to a charity.
Stamp duties
Stamp duty and stamp duty reserve tax can cause problems when reorganising the shares within a group of companies.
The professional bodies have been asking for stamp duty reliefs when demerging unlisted companies and for capital reduction arrangements. It appears that solutions to these issues have been found which will take effect for transfers made from Royal Assent of the Finance Bill.
There will be no 1% SDLT surcharge imposed for non-residents on the purchase of UK property, as was suggested in Budget 2018.
Digital services tax (DST)
This is a proposal for a completely new tax of 2% on the revenues of search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces which derive value from UK users. It would only apply where the annual revenues of the group exceeded £500m and more than £25m of that was in the UK.
Only revenues earned from 1 April 2020 would be taxed and HM Treasury would have to review the operation of DST by 31 December 2025. The DST does not seek to tax digital sales more generally.
The DST is a departure from most corporate taxes as it applies to revenues not profits.
Surprising
Worldwide investment
The CGT and income tax reliefs given under the existing “loans to traders” and “share loss relief” rules currently limit those reliefs to investments made in companies or businesses located in the UK. This restriction to UK-only businesses was judged to breach the EU rules for free movement of capital in a ruling given on 24 January 2019.
The Finance Bill 2019/20 proposals extend the scope of those reliefs where an individual has invested in a business located anywhere in the world and will have effect for loans made to traders or shares subscribed for in unlisted companies from 24 January 2019.
Compensation exemptions
The governments of Germany and the UK have recently provided compensation payments to groups of people who have been wronged by government or national action. These amounts of compensation will be exempt from the following taxes:
- Kindertransport compensation – for IHT
- Windrush compensation – for income tax, CGT and IHT[1]
[1] Reproduced from AccountingWeb