Welcome to the September Technical Newsdesk

The new fiscal calendar now means that draft clauses are published and consulted upon over the summer. This year, in addition to the unusually hot summer we have experienced, there are a few measures capable of raising temperatures even further. Provisions to extend the assessment time limits for offshore matters (draft clauses 33 and 34) were inevitable – the initial consultation being around how rather than whether – although companies (or rather their directors / shareholders) might breathe a sigh of relief as corporation tax will not be within scope. Complex new rules around profit fragmentation (draft clause 10) will also turn up the heat, not just for the estimated 10,000 individuals and businesses targeted, but inevitably for thousands more who will need to satisfy themselves that they are not also impacted. The Finance Bill itself will not be published until after the autumn Budget, and so HMRC still want to hear if the legislation does not work as intended.

Let me just highlight a few things in this month’s Technical Newsdesk (although they are all equally important so do read them all!). We start (as normal) with a focus on one of our technical sub-committees, Employment Taxes. This area is hugely topical (employment status, 2019 loan charge and so on) and the sub-committee is constantly dealing with significant issues. Is this your area of expertise or interest? If so, do get in touch.

Making Tax Digital is a Technical Newsdesk staple, and we move ever-closer to the 1 April 2019 start date for MTD for VAT. We have recently seen some important developments, such as the issue of the VAT Notice, and the launch of the list of software developers who are working with HMRC. Look out for more updates on the CIOT and ATT websites on this, or better still come to one of the branch events or conferences we (mainly me!) will be speaking at. I wonder sometimes whether this is what it feels like to be a musician going on tour. At many of these events, with the ongoing move to ‘digital’, members express frustration at not being able to access clients’ Personal Tax Accounts, even though they are the client’s agent. Part of the reason why HMRC do not allow this is because of security concerns, but HMRC continue to work with agents and professional bodies to ‘secure the front door’, and we report this month on some co-design workshops currently taking place.

Finally from me, whilst some of our work involves preparing written submissions, our best interaction with policymakers and stakeholders takes place face-to-face – indeed, in the first half of 2018, CIOT alone had over 130 such meetings. We report on our recent meeting with the Office of Tax Simplification in relation to its review of Inheritance Tax.