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In brief: NIC Bill; business visitors; Fair Tax Mark; consignment relief; spacecraft; guidance

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NIC Bill

The National Insurance Contributions Bill, which was introduced into Parliament on 17 July 2014, had its second reading on 8 September. It now goes to a Public Bill Committee, which must complete its consideration by 28 October 2014. The Bill covers four main measures:

  • collection of class 2 NIC through self-assessment;
  • follower notices and accelerated payments in avoidance cases;
  • a monitoring regime for high-risk promoters to mirror the income tax rules in FA 2014; and
  • a targeted anti-avoidance rule for employment intermediaries.

Short term business visitors: 60-day rule for PAYE

HMRC has amended its PAYE manual guidance at PAYE82000, which contains the ‘EP appendix 4’ relaxed PAYE arrangements for foreign employees on short-term business visits to the UK. This now makes explicit that the 60-day rule of physical presence will apply to determine whether or not the UK employer is required as the ‘economic employer’ to operate PAYE on the employee’s UK remuneration.

Fair Tax Mark for Go-Ahead

The bus and rail operator Go-Ahead Group PLC is first FTSE 350 company to have been awarded the Fair Tax Mark. Separately, the campaigning body behind the FTM has published its second draft of its criteria for awarding the FTM to multinational companies, along with responses received to its earlier consultation in June.

VAT: low value consignment relief

The Value Added Tax (Imported Goods) Relief (Amendment) Order, SI 2014/2364, has been laid before the House of Commons and comes into force on 26 September 2014. This amending order ensures that the exclusion of VAT low value consignment relief applying to goods imported from the Channel Islands is limited to mail order goods. The government published a draft of this instrument for consultation during March and April 2014, and the order previously referred to goods sent under a ‘distance selling arrangement’. The change is required to comply with the specific wording of the exclusion permitted by EU Council Directive 2009/132/EC.

IPT: spacecraft exemption

HMRC has published for comment by 6 October 2014 a draft statutory instrument and a tax information and impact note amending FA 1994 Sch 7A to introduce an insurance premium tax exemption for certain insurance contracts for spacecraft. Read Insurance Premium Tax (Non-taxable Insurance Contracts) Order, SI 2014/Draft.

HMRC guidance

Recent HMRC guidance includes:

  • updated UK FATCA guidance to reflect changes to the US regulations. There are material changes concerning: participating FFI groups; application to trusts; format for reporting to HMRC; and maintenance of information for regulatory purposes. The next update is due in February 2015;
  • updated Small profits rate and marginal relief toolkit;
  • changes to the EXB internet technical pack (for PAYE internet submissions on expenses and benefits 2014/15); and
  • updated corporation tax indexation allowance table for chargeable gains up to and including the July 2014 indexation allowance (the value of the RPI for July 2014 is 256.0).
Issue: 1230
Categories: News
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