IN BRIEF

The proposed extension of free childcare is great news, but is the eligibility criteria fair?

Jeremy Hunt hit a milestone this week by delivering his first Budget. Once upon a time, a chancellor delivering the annual Budget would be entirely unremarkable, but given his two predecessors did not last long enough in office to do so, the event...

The Budget was a little on the boring side, but perhaps that is only because all the main policies had already been trailed? Not that anybody should be complaining nobody becomes a tax adviser because they are of the view that if you're not...

Two years' ago, I wrote a piece entitled 'The corporation tax rate rise', the gist of which was that by putting the headline rate of corporation tax up from 19% to 25% without narrowing the tax base the chancellor was predicting an increase in...

Increasing the pensions lifetime allowance was widely trailed. Abolishing it, and increasing the annual allowance by 50% to 60,000, wasnt. Although these measures have been introduced primarily to remove the immediate and deferred...

In the Spring Budget, the chancellor announced that investment in plant and machinery would be immediately expensed for tax purposes for the next three years. That is, 100% of new expenditure will be deductible immediately against taxable profit. At...

Reform of the UKs RD tax reliefs has been ongoing for several years and with yet more changes taking effect from April 2023, and others from April 2024, it has become a rather iterative process. While this is hardly helpful for businesses...

EMIFollowing the government's review of enterprise management incentives (EMI), changes were announced in the Spring Budget to relax certain requirements for the grant of EMI options. Whilst a long list of qualifying requirements remains, this will...

No significant amendments were announced in relation to the rates or design of the energy windfall taxes (energy profits levy (EPL) and electricity generator levy (EGL)) introduced last year.Further detail was included in a policy paper...

HMRC has been very keen to beef up in its use of criminal law to close the tax gap. For one particular population of users (or abusers) of the tax system namely promoters of tax avoidance the Spring Budget 2023 confirmed that the...