Attacks on HMRC for making 5.1m ‘errors’ in people’s tax for 2011/12 are unfounded, the CIOT’s Low Incomes Tax Reform Group has warned. HMRC announced last week that around 3m taxpayers were about to receive tax refunds, ‘two months earlier than last year’.
The CIOT technical team has published an update stating that HMRC has confirmed that letters sent to taxpayers, requesting further information from those who have decided to pursue 'Mansworth v Jelley' CGT loss claims based on its 2003 guidance, do not constitute 'decisions' which trigge
Steve Lamey, Benefits and Credits Director General, is to leave HMRC in July to join the IT services company Kelway as Chief Operating Officer. Lamey was HMRC’s Chief Information Officer between 2004 and 2007, when he became Chief Operating Officer.
‘Supporters of a financial transaction tax have a strong ally in the new French president, François Hollande, who wants to recycle the revenue raised from the so-called Tobin tax into growth-enhancing investment projects.
An updated Notice 727: Retail Schemes is available. HMRC has also updated the Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Spanish versions of its Notice 704/1: Tax free shopping in the UK. The foreign language versions have the title VAT refunds for travellers departing from the EC.
Senior tax officials from OECD countries met in Montreal to discuss recent ‘unintended double non-taxation’ due to the use of hybrid mismatch arrangements.
The government makes its own decisions on tax policy and does not take lectures from big business, the CBI’s Director General has told a BBC Panorama programme investigating ‘massive tax savings’ made by multinationals through transactions with Luxembourg subsidiaries.
A new initiative to provide international auditing expertise and advice to help developing countries ‘better address tax base erosion, including tax evasion and avoidance’ has been launched by the OECD’s Informal Task Force on Tax and Development.
HMRC is organising a second public meeting this week to give people an opportunity to ask questions about the proposed Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme. A formal consultation on the measure will close on 25 May.
Five bodies representing freelancers and small businesses on HMRC’s IR35 Forum claim that new guidance on rules to counter tax avoidance via personal service companies ‘fails to take into account key elements in their advice’, according to PCG (formerly the Professional Contractors Group).