The government published for consultation various draft clauses for inclusion in the Finance Bill. The draft clauses also included the legislative framework for the new ‘multinational top-up tax’, a new tax on multinationals where profits have not been taxed at a minimum of 15%. The legislation is highly complex and runs to 110 pages. The government also published various consultation documents, including one on improving the data that HMRC collects from taxpayers, which could have a significant impact on employers. The government also published a response to a consultation on possible earlier registration for income tax self assessment (ITSA): we were pleased to see that the proposals (which we had opposed) will not proceed. Instead, there will be further engagement. We also had a catch-up call with a member of HMRC’s stakeholder team to discuss legislation day matters and HMRC’s annual report and accounts.

Nick Parker was formally approved by the ICAEW nominating committee as Chair of the Tax Faculty Board for two years with effect from June 2022. Stuart Lisle’s appointment as Deputy Chair was also approved and immediate past Chair Raj Shah’s appointment as the Tax Faculty representative on ICAEW Council was approved for a further year with effect from June 2022. Following his appointment Nick will now become an ex officio member of ICAEW’s Technical Strategy Board (TSB), which oversees all ICAEW’s work in Reputation and Influence and which includes the Tax Faculty. Although Raj’s term on the TSB had come to an end, he was reappointed as a co-opted member. Congratulations to them all. 

We made informal written representations on a range of employment tax and NIC matters, including seeking a meeting with HMRC on improving the operation of PAYE, the payrolling of benefits in kind, agent registration, and the new starter checklist. 

Seven years since it was first announced as making tax easier, the Tax Faculty has been engaging with HMRC on Making Tax Digital (MTD) ITSA more intensively than ever. In response to a consultation on draft tertiary legislation for MTD ITSA, we submitted ICAEW REP 62/22, also taking the opportunity to highlight some of our more general concerns about the MTD project. We also arranged for a round table with 10 ICAEW members, providing an opportunity for HMRC’s MTD team to hear directly from agents in practice about their concerns over MTD ITSA.

HMRC’s service standards were discussed at a meeting of the Representative Bodies Steering Group. HMRC subsequently published its latest performance data alongside its annual report and accounts and apologised for poor service performance, while noting it expects to see continuing pressure on services for some time. 

As noted above, there was a meeting of the Representative Bodies Steering Group and a regular quarterly catch-up with HMRC’s intermediaries’ team. There were numerous meetings on specific aspects of MTD and the agent digital design group.

The seven bodies that publish the Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT) undertook a five-yearly review of the PCRT and its helpsheets to see whether they needed updating. Although some possible changes were discussed, it was decided to wait and see whether changes might be needed to reflect the outcome of the work being undertaken by the International Ethics Standards Board to review the ethical framework for tax planning and related services.  

We held our first catch-up dinner with the Chartered Institute of Taxation since the start of the pandemic. We also attended a meeting of the ICAEW Practice Committee to provide an update on MTD, service standards and potential next steps for regulation of tax advisers. We attended a meeting of the tax directors of the Global Accounting Alliance, where topics discussed included post-COVID support measures, performance standards and digitalisation trends in revenue authorities, and progress in implementing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development domestic tax base erosion and profit shifting project. 

Vanessa Clark and Naomi Wells of Azets presented a webinar on the Trust Registration Service and the requirements that need to be met. Many thanks to them and to Caroline Miskin for moderating the session. You can watch it again following the links on the Tax Faculty website.