Tax Administration and Maintenance Day

The government announced a ‘package’ of technical tax policy proposals on 18 April 2024. While there was much-baited breath for possible news on some of the Budget 2024 announcements including:

• Furnished Holiday Let (FHL) tax benefits to cease from 6 April 2025, with anti-forestalling rules applying beforehand.
• A new regime for non-domiciled individuals from April 2025.
• A move to using household income for computing the high-income child benefit charge (HICBC) by April 2026.

No new information materialised. We’ve referenced some webinars below that may help accountants and tax professionals like you in the meantime.

Neither was there sign of the promised new legislation to treat double-cab pick-ups with a payload of more than one tonne as commercial vehicles for capital allowances and employment benefit purposes.

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What was included in the technical tax policy proposals?

There was actually very little in the ‘package’. Upon unwrapping all we found were:

Two consultations

Firstly on the VAT treatment of private hire vehicles. This is open until 8 August 2024 and considers the impacts of the Uber Britannia Limited v Sefton Borough Council High Court judgment that was handed down on 28 July 2023, and the Uber London Limited v Transport for London High Court judgment that was handed down on 6 December 2021. Both relate to the private hire vehicle (PHV) sector and its passengers.

Secondly, a second technical consultation on mandating postcode provision for Freeports and Investment Zones NICs reliefs. The draft regulations introduce a new reporting requirement for Freeport and Investment Zone employers who claim the NICs reliefs to provide a workplace postcode for employees they claim the NICs reliefs in respect of.

Two promises of updates and documents to come!

Firstly, in relation to tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market. We are told that the government remains concerned about abuse and later this year will be publishing its response to its 2023 consultation on the matter, along with new guidance.

The new guidance will include an online pay checking tool to help umbrella company workers to check whether the correct deductions are being made from their pay.

There was also a statement that:

‘The government is minded to introduce a due diligence requirement to drive out bad actors from labour supply chains. To this end it will continue to engage with the recruitment industry and other key stakeholders on the detail of a statutory due diligence regime for businesses that use umbrella companies, and ensure it has the best understanding of the impacts that this could have on reducing non-compliance.’

The second piece of information to come later this year will be a consultation on a targeted VAT relief for low-value goods which businesses donate to charities for the charities to give away free of charge to people in need.

There was actually a better package of updates delivered on the 17 April by way of Agent Update 119! We’ll delve into this in the May 2024 Practice Insight webinar (see below).

What next?

While we keep refreshing webpages in the hope of more to news to come, it seems Tax Administration and Maintenance Day has run its course.

What we will do is consider and reflect on the information we do have. Join us for more on these upcoming webinars.

General news review and interpretations - We’ll be rounding up all the news (and missing news) in the ever-popular (and free for all) 20:20 Innovation Practice Insight webinar. The April round-up is taking place on 3rd May and you can book to join or listen later.

Furnished Holiday Lets – While she will not have much to go on, Ros Martin will be reviewing what we have been told, alongside recommendations previously made by the Office of Tax Simplification, in her webinar ‘Property Tax Issues including the Abolition of FHLs’ on 26th April.

We’ll also be exploring the topic and planning that we might do with clients in the Property Sector Group June 2024 focus groups (running on 19th and 25th June with capped group numbers – so get in quick!).

Non-domiciled individuals – Ros Martin is going to cover what we do know in her webinar ‘Residency, Domicile and the New Regime coming in April 2025’ on 5th June.

Double-cab pick ups – Hear more from Martyn Ingles in his ‘Capital Allowances – Update and Refresher’ on 18th June.

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