· With just one week to go until Making Tax Digital for VAT is introduced for more than a million businesses, HMRC says just 70,000, only 6% of businesses, have signed up for the new MTD service, which is mandatory from 1 April
- HMRC has warned that the registration process for Making Tax Digital for VAT will take seven days to complete and will not be a real time service
- HMRC’s behaviour has been described as a ‘scandal’ and ‘ridiculous’ after it issued £1,600 in fines to a homeless man who had filed his self-assessment tax return late
- HMRC and the Treasury plans to introduce a 1% increase to stamp duty land tax (SDLT) rates for non-UK residents, including companies and trusts, purchasing residential property, with proceeds of the surcharge going towards measures to tackle rough sleeping
- A future Labour government is set to increase fuel duty and airline passenger duty – both of which have been frozen for several years
- MPs have lambasted the BBC for ‘fundamental’ project management failures in the redevelopment of the set for its flagship TV series EastEnders, which is set to cost £27m more than budgeted
- A cross-party group of MPs is calling for a 0.5% levy on the profits of social media companies to be used to fund a new Social Media Health Alliance
- Another Scam, this time on mobiles. Automated call – reportedly to be from HMRC – telling you a law suit will be actioned against you for undeclared remuneration and to press one for case worker. This is nonsense – do not press one, immediately clear the call and report it to HMRC on phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
- HMRC has issued the latest PAYE tax codes for tax year 2019-20 effective 6 April highlighting the increase in the tax-free personal allowance to £12,500
- Alexa has talked her way into the basket of items used to calculate inflation, with smart speakers, flavoured tea and electric toothbrushes joining the list, while envelopes, three-piece suites and hi-fi systems are dropping out, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed
- The Treasury has signalled it plans to increase the number of female entrepreneurs in the UK by 50% by asking lenders for details of the gender split of business investments
- The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) will be closed and replaced with a new audit regulator, following criticism of their effectiveness of the existing organisation.
- The government’s third party online ID system Verify missed its usage and savings targets by 75%, according to the National Audit Office.
- Accountants preparing for MTD are frustrated their Agent Services Accounts can’t show whether clients have opted into the new VAT filing regime, meaning each record has to be viewed individually wasting so much time.
- HMRC has opened a 12-week consultation into controversial proposals to extend the IR35 off-payroll working rules to the private sector from April 2020, watch this space for further information
- Stationery specialist Paperchase is the latest high street retailer to announce financial difficulties, bringing in KPMG to assist with a proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which would include rent reductions at many of its stores and the possible closure of some outlets
- Estate agents have been hit with unannounced inspections as part of a week-long crackdown on money laundering in the property industry, while national chain Countrywide has been fined a record £215,000 for breaches of the regulations, HMRC has revealed
- The payment window for stamp duty land tax (SDLT) has been halved to 14 days affecting all commercial and residential property sales while a new penalty system will also come into force with immediate effect
- ICAEW warns that company boards are drowning in paperwork and the increasing volume of information has reached such a scale that it is undermining team work and the ability to make good decisions
- The number of insolvent businesses being liquidated has increased by 10% in the last year, with rising interest rates and Brexit disruption fuelling the rise
- Metro Bank has is being probed by the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority over a significant adjustment to its accounting for risk weighted assets
- Changes to the capital gains tax (CGT) rules on sales of land mean that non-UK residents will be captured by the CGT regime for the first time from April 2019, raising complex tax compliance issues
- Any UK travel-based businesses operating in the EU after 29 March 2019 could see changes to their VAT accounting under the tour operators margin scheme