The Finance Bill completed its parliamentary stages and received Royal Assent on 10 June 2021, about a month earlier than usual. At 417 pages, the Act is considerably longer than many of the Acts that have been passed in the past few years. We welcome feedback on how the changes it makes work out in practice.

On 14 June, ICAEW and the other bodies on the Representative Bodies Steering Group discussed HMRC’s decline in service standards and how the position could be improved, recognising that the pandemic had been a particularly difficult time for HMRC because of the need to deploy staff to help out with the design and operation of the COVID-19 grant schemes. We were delighted that, earlier the same day, HMRC had announced the restoration of the Agent Dedicated Line (ADL) on a trial basis, albeit with some restrictions on what it could be used for. 

HMRC had stated that the waiting time on the ADL would not be more than 10 minutes. We understand that this target is being met and, in many cases, the actual waiting time is much shorter than stated. HMRC also confirmed that the post backlog is slowly being cleared, although, for operational reasons, agents may find that more recently submitted post is being cleared in priority to post that was submitted earlier. We will continue to press HMRC to ensure that these improvements are sustained in the future.

Discussions with HMRC continue about the detail of Making Tax Digital for ITSA. Given the delays in issuing the final regulations, the opening up of the pilot and the release of the soft ware specifications, we do not think that the proposed start date of 6 April 2023 is now a realistic option for all taxpayers in scope. We are pressing for greater clarity over the timing to help ensure that businesses and tax agents can plan their work with some certainty.

We continued our outreach programme on the tax administration framework review and the proposal for more timely payment, preparing detailed draft s for circulation for comments. We remain concerned about whether HMRC has the necessary skills, resources and budget to deliver on such a major project.

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) published a document setting out the potential benefits and costs of changing date of the end of the tax year for individuals. The Tax Faculty staff undertook some outreach with members to help inform our response to the OTS, including holding the Wyman Symposium on 13 July.

During the period, there were virtual meetings of the Tax Faculty Board, the Tax Policy and Reputation Committee, the Compliance and Investigations Committee, the Private Client Committee and the Practitioner Tax Committee. Following the retirement of David Heaton as Chair of the Compliance and Investigations Committee, we are delighted to announce that Annis Lampard, Tax Director at Deloitte, accepted the position of Chair. We wish Annis all the best in her new role.

On 9 June, we were pleased to have two members of our VAT and Duties Committee deliver a webinar: Stephen Dale of Hedeos Avocats and Liam Dushynsky of PKF Francis Clark. They presented a webinar on the changes to the e-commerce VAT regimes in the EU and UK.

On 14 June, Tax Faculty Manager Richard Jones was joined by Steve Watts, a partner at BDO LLP, to discuss the capital allowances landscape following the changes introduced by the Finance Act 2021, including the super-deduction and extension of the uplifted annual investment allowance. You can watch them again by following the links on the webinar pages.

On 17 June, I chaired a Future of Tax panel session at ICAEW’s Virtually Live event. The guest speaker was Dame Meg Hillier MP. Also on the panel were Giles McCallum, Director of Making Tax Digital at HMRC, and Praveen Gupta, National Head of Tax at Azets. At the same event, Anita Monteith also presented a pre-recorded session, Top 5 Tax policy tips in a post-COVID world.