Budget 2026 

We published ten articles on the day of the budget  – 28 October 2026 – with two additional articles published in the following days.  

Learn more about: 

• Income tax changes, including increases in the rate of tax for property and savings income.
• The pension tax allowance: how it works and why it was introduced.
• A new relief for founders, and other CGT changes. A second article looks at the conditions for founders’ relief in more detail.
• Measures affecting businesses, including changes to capital allowances.
• Making Tax Digital developments, including the penalty soft landing.
• Measures relevant for employers and employees.
• Measures to tackle tax debt, including more timely payment of income tax.
• Tax administration announcements, including HMRC's approach to wealthy compliance.
• The key VAT changes, including the e-invoicing implementation roadmap.
• Changes to indirect taxes: CBAM, and more.
• Business rates relief and fiscal devolution. 

Preparing for 2027/28 

We’ll be publishing a series of articles to help taxpayers and agents prepare for the new tax year in the run-up to April 2027, similar to last year’s campaign.  

However, if you’re wondering how the new rates of tax on property income will work, and what they’ll mean for the income tax calculation, you can find out more now by reading our article Preparing for 2027/28: changes to the calculation of income tax. Although the article was published before the budget 2026, it has been updated for the announcements made on the day.

HMRC campaigns 

Under its one-to-many approach, HMRC may send a standard message to a group of taxpayers to encourage them to check that they have met their tax obligations. In October, we published articles covering one-to-many campaigns involving: 

• UK investors in offshore funds;
• taxpayers who have significant control of companies;
• parents who may be liable to high-income child benefit charge; and
• employees who travel to temporary workplaces. 

Agents 

HMRC completed the roll-out of multi-factor authentication (MFA) on agent accounts in October 2026. As we explained in an article, it is important the agents sign into their online accounts to ensure that MFA access code settings are working as expected. Should any issues arise, identifying and resolving those issues now may avoid delay or disruption when completing work for clients at a later date, for example, in the run-up to the 31 January 2027 deadline for submitting the self assessment tax return for 2025/26. 

Agents may also wish to consider preparing for the resumption – from 18 November 2026 - of agent reference number (ARN) checks when contacting HMRC. HMRC began asking agents to provide their ARN in August 2026. However, it later announced that it would pause ARN checks until 18 November 2026, to give agents more time to prepare for the change in process. Our article provides more information, including how to find your ARN. 

Tax reform 

We continue to add to our campaign on How to build a better tax system. In October, we published a thought leadership paper and accompanying article on dispute resolution and the courts, and in early November we published a thought leadership paper on digital infrastructure.

Also in October, ICAEW announced that it is creating the Future of Tax Commission to review the UK’s ‘distorted’ tax system and provide a roadmap for reforms that will reduce complexity and ensure the regime can keep pace with wider societal changes.