Budget and Finance Bill cycle 

We responded to the government's technical consultation on draft legislation for Finance Bill 2026-27 in September 2026, commenting on areas including the new obligation for taxpayers to take corrective action when they become aware of an inaccuracy in a return or document. The key points from ICAEW's submission are summarised in this article. 

Also in September, we responded to government consultations on a wide range of areas, such as the government's proposals to: 

• tackle low value tax debt;
• reform the tax rules applying to distributions;
• improve land remediation relief; and
• modernise the customs system.

MTD income tax 

In September, we considered taxpayer and agents' views on Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax in our articles: 

• First MTD income tax submission: how did it go?, in which we reflected on agents’ experiences of submitting the first quarterly update for 2026/27; and
• Survey reveals mixed views on MTD and HMRC performance, in which we picked out the key points from the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board’s latest annual survey. 

We also delivered the fourth and final webinar in our MTDtalk 2026 series, covering the year-end return. Agents are now starting to file quarterly updates for the second quarter. Note that the 7 November deadline falls on a Saturday. 

Recordings of all the webinars are available at MTDtalk 2026 webinar series.  

Agents 

The roll-out of multi-factor authentication (MFA) on agents' HMRC online accounts entered its final phase in September. Our article explains what MFA is, how it will be added to all remaining agent accounts between 28 September and 15 October 2026, and where to go for help.  

The following articles may also be of interest to agents: 

• Update: client allocation in the online services account | ICAEW
• HMRC promises client lists in the agent services account | ICAEW
• In-house tax teams: are you registered as a tax agent with HMRC? | ICAEW 

2025/26 tax returns 

Company directors must provide additional information when completing the self assessment tax return for 2025/26. In May 2026, we published an article explaining the new requirements in detail and highlighting circumstances where it was unclear how the rules would apply. In September 2026, we published a follow-up article. Drawing on new and updated guidance published by HMRC, the article explains the position for individuals who receive no remuneration from their role as a director or have multiple directorships. 

Continuing with the 2025/26 tax return, we also published articles:

• reminding taxpayers and agents of the importance of including capital gains reported to HMRC through 60-day or real time reporting on the tax return (learn more); and
• explaining how to avoid common errors and misconceptions when applying the tax rules to transactions involving cryptoassets (learn more).

Tax reform

We continue to add to our campaign on how to build a better tax system. In September, we published a thought leadership paper and accompanying article on how the tax advice market could be improved. 

Other developments 

September saw a welcome announcement from the government on mandatory payrolling of benefits in kind (BiK). As explained in our recently updated explainer article, employers will be required to payroll many of the more common BiK from April 2027. ICAEW had raised concerns that this may prove particularly challenging to apply for employers of globally mobile employees (GME). The government has now confirmed that employers will have the option to voluntarily exclude GME from mandatory payrolling. 

In other news, HMRC announced that it expects to send 1.8m simple assessment letters for 2025/26. In our article we explain why simple assessments are needed, why so many letters are now sent each year, and how taxpayers should respond if they receive one. 

In VAT, HMRC: 

• confirmed the temporary VAT cut on domestic electricity bills;
• made changes to its VAT refund policy for non-UK businesses in a VAT group;
• clarified the VAT treatment of fund management services; and
• updated its VAT guidance for alternative providers of education.