NEWS

This roundup sets out the most important changes to HMRC manuals over the past week as curated by our editors.

Professional tax and accountancy bodies have issued new guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) in tax work, as the use of AI tools becomes more widespread across the profession. The guidance sets out how the Professional Conduct...

New guidelines on compliance expectations and practical methodologies to help with imported hybrid matches have been published by HMRC’s Agent Update issue 139, and include: clarifying key concepts such as payments, quasi-payments, reasonable to...

In Budget 2025, the Government revealed that there would be updates to voluntary NICs for time spent abroad. Starting April 2026 (for tax years 2026 to 2027 onward), voluntary Class 2 NICs for periods abroad will end. New Class 3 NIC applications for...

HMRC have released an important update to its Guidelines for Compliance (GfC7), expanding its guidance on transfer pricing risk with two new subparts: 2.2.8: value chain analysis; and 3.8: offshore procurement hubs. Announced in Agent Update issue...

Tax credit contributions made under the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund to an approved body will be removed from 1 April 2026 to coincide with the scheme being wound up. This is in line with the Scottish Government’s decision to close the fund to...

HMRC overcharged workers £3.5bn in income tax last year, with 5.6 million Britons paying too much, according to figures obtained from an FoI request by UHY Hacker Young. The firm says this overcharging through the PAYE system largely stems from HMRC...

HMRC were successful in just 37.8% of appeals lodged by taxpayers against automated penalties in the first six months of the current financial year. The figures, taken from HMRC’s Corporate report: performance data 2025/26, indicate that there were...

Following the first batch of customer awareness letters that were sent in November 2025, HMRC will send more awareness letters in February and March 2026 to customers who have submitted their 2024 to 2025 tax return. These awareness letters...

Proposed changes to Cash ISAs announced in the recent Budget could make the ISA regime more complicated and harder for savers to navigate, the Treasury Committee has warned. The committee had previously questioned whether lowering the Cash ISA...