ATT President’s Page

Goodness. Very exciting times ahead. All that talk last month about a proposed increase to National Insurance to fund the cost of social care for the elderly, and the repercussions about who would be hardest hit (probably the younger generation). And it does seem to fly in the face of the 2019 Election Manifesto – no increase to income tax, NI contributions and VAT.

What I found really interesting was that the funds raised by this tax would be used to reduce the NHS waiting lists in the first year. And did anybody foresee the increase to the rate of dividend tax? Or even the new Health and Social Care Levy from April 2023?

Gone are the days when a tax was directly linked to a purpose (NI contributions and health care). I recall the days of Gordon Brown when, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
NI contributions were initially increased by 1%, and subsequently by a further 1%, to tackle the hospital waiting lists.

The march towards digitisation continues – all VAT registered businesses must become MTD compliant for VAT from April 2022. That is now less than six months away. For the tax practitioner, one might expect this to be a straightforward affair – we have already brought other VAT registered businesses into MTD, so it should not be too difficult to bring the remainder in.

Presumably you have identified and been in contact with those businesses to help steer them along the path towards MTD for VAT?

And of course, April 2022 sees the possible (or probable) start of the migration from the ‘current year basis of assessment’ to the ‘tax year basis of assessment’. If you are unsure of how this could affect your business clients, I recommend you take a look at the webinar ‘Basis Period reforms & MTD for ITSA’ that was delivered by Emma Rawson, one of our ATT Technical Team, last month. Thank you, Emma, for your explanation and foresight.

If you have any thoughts or comments about this proposed change, please do get in contact with us. 

You will see that we have continued to deliver CPD courses online during the pandemic, and it is our intention that this should continue until at least the end of this calendar year. If you have any ideas of topics that would be worth covering by an online course, please do get in touch with us. As the courses are now presented online, one is no longer restricted to attendance at a local venue.

This month sees the second of our special webinars available to Fellows of ATT. I thank Jeremy Coker, our most recent Immediate Past President for his delivery of the first Fellows’ webinar, and I hope you find this month’s webinar equally relevant to your work. And November sees our second virtual Admissions’ Ceremony. If you are one of our new Members being admitted that evening, I look forward to seeing you.

And of course, I do wish to thank Jeremy again for agreeing to remain as President during the previous two years, and for his time and effort devoted to ATT. Jeremy has set a high standard for me to maintain.

I look forward to the next nine months, working with Jane Ashton (ATT’s CEO), David Bradshaw (my Deputy President), Simon Groom (my Vice President) and all the Members of Council. 

Together we will endeavour to ensure that ATT leads the debate on current tax issues – such as compulsory PI insurance for those providing tax services; the possible regulation of the tax profession; ensuring that our exams remain relevant for a career in tax; and encouraging more students to take (and hopefully pass) our exams.

I believe the nine months ahead of me will be busy months. And I would like to thank my employer and colleague, William Wilson, for his support. 

Stay safe.

We have continued to deliver CPD courses online during the pandemic, and it is our intention that this should continue until at least the end of this calendar year.