In David McLean & Ors v Andrew Thornhill KC [2023] EWCA Civ 466, the Court of Appeal held that the barrister advising promoters of a film partnership tax scheme owed no duty of care to investors who used the scheme. The investors should have taken their own independent tax advice.
SME Tax News
The Co-operatives, Mutuals and Friendly Societies Bill is currently passing through parliament. The government has announced that it is supporting this legislation seeking to protect the assets of mutual entities, by making them non-distributable and only available for prescribed purposes.
Hello
In this week's update, we are having a deep dive into HMRC's Tax Administration and Maintenance day documents and consultations. 'TAM' day was last Thursday and we have made you an 'At a glance summary' so you can decide whether you want to learn more.
In Toby Hextall v HMRC [2023] TC8804, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) found discovery assessments looking to reclaim unpaid High Income Child Benefit Charge were not valid as they had been raised out of normal assessment time limits. The taxpayer had acted reasonably, despite not registering for self-assessment
On its 'Tax Administration and Maintenance Day', last week, the government published a number of tax policy proposals and consultations to support its plan to simplify and modernise the tax system, tackle non-compliance and make the tax system fairer. We take a closer look at some of the new proposals. Next week we will look at proposals for developing the tax administration framework.
HMRC's new 'The Tax Administration Framework review – information and data', explores options for substantially widening and updating HMRC information and data-gathering powers. These include new powers co-joining data information requests from both companies and their owners, and amending its powers to allow it to obtain data from cloud applications and data centres.
We have summarised the key points of in the consultation, it's worth reading to the bottom, as the intended powers ramp up as the document progresses.
HMRC have launched a new consultation 'Off-Payroll Working (IR35): calculation of PAYE liability in cases of non-compliance'. The aim is to seek views on a potential legislative change to address the over-collection of tax in cases of non-compliance.
HMRC have published a summary of the responses to the 'Call for Evidence: Modernising tax debt collection from non-paying businesses'. Feedback acknowledged that HMRC's powers needed to adapt to the changing economy and that care was needed around identifying deliberate non-payers.
A new consultation has been opened on the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS), which considers whether the gross payment statutory compliance test should be reformed to consider VAT and other potential administrative reforms involving landlords, tenants and groups.
HMRC have launched a consultation ‘Tougher consequences for promoters of tax avoidance’. It seeks views on proposals for a new criminal offence for promoters of tax avoidance who fail to comply with HMRC stop notices, and to expedite the disqualification of directors who promote tax avoidance.