In November 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), published findings from a 2025 FCA multi-firm review focusing on business-wide risk assessment and customer risk assessment processes. The FCA fed back its findings on firms identifying, understanding and assessing risk, mitigating risk and managing risk. The findings highlight good and poor practice to help firms reflect on how they are meeting the existing risk assessment requirements. While firms involved in this review are part of FCA regulated population such as building societies, e-money payments firms and wealth management firms, there are general learnings which can be taken from the findings. This information is provided as resources and information only and nothing in these pages purports to provide professional advice or definitive legal interpretation(s) or opinion(s) on the applicable legislation or legal or other matters referred to in the pages. If the reader is in doubt on any matter in this complex area further legal or other advice must be obtained. While every reasonable care has been taken by the Institute in the preparation of these pages, we do not guarantee the accuracy or veracity of any resource, guidance, information or opinion, or the appropriateness, suitability or applicability of any practice or procedure contained therein. The Institute is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of the resources or information contained in these pages.      

Revenue has published several new guidance documents on VAT groups covering the territorial scope of VAT groups, transitional VAT groups and relevant general information on VAT groups. In the guidance Revenue has outlined that VAT grouping is available to establishments located within the State which means that only a head office or branch established in Ireland is entitled to be a member of an Irish VAT group. The guidance has immediate effect for any VAT Groups formed after its publication and must be implemented by all existing VAT Groups no later than 31 December 2026. The general guidance on VAT groups outlines the conditions required to form a VAT group, the application of VAT group provisions and the consequences and deductibility of the group together with other relevant information.  The transitional VAT groups guidance contains similar information and will remain in place until 31 December 2026. It relates to existing VAT groups which are impacted by the new guidance on the territorial scope of VAT groups

Revenue issued a press release, ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday advising consumers to confirm whether advertised prices include all applicable taxes and duties before purchasing. If these costs are excluded, additional charges such as VAT and Customs Duty may apply when goods are delivered in Ireland. As outlined in the press release, Ms Maureen Dalton, Head of Revenue’s South East Frontier Management Branch, advised: “Import VAT is payable on all goods arriving into Ireland from outside the EU, no matter how small the purchase. For example, if you buy a Christmas decoration online for €15 from a non-EU country, and the postage is €3.50, VAT at 23% will apply to the combined amount, resulting in €4.26 VAT to be paid before delivery.” If the purchase price of the goods alone exceeds €150, both Customs Duty and VAT may apply.”

Revenue has updated Appendix 2 of the VIES Traders Manual Version 2 to include a link to the guide to preparing VIES returns on the Return Preparation Facility (RPF) which replaces the ROS Offline Application. Appendix 2 also includes a link to the VIES CSV template (Excel).

On Wednesday at 12:30pm Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver her second Budget with much speculation that tax rises and Government department spending cuts will feature for the second time. But will the Chancellor break the Government’s manifesto pledge? In just two days’ time we will know all the details. After last year’s Budget the Chancellor had £9 billion "headroom" in case of tougher times, which certainly have come to pass since President Trump took up office in January. On Wednesday the Institute will be analysing and reacting to the Budget with full analysis to follow in next Monday’s Chartered Accountants Tax News. The Institute’s Pre-Budget submission is also available to read. Ahead of the Budget: HM Treasury published the transcript of what is referred to as a scene setter speech delivered by the Chancellor earlier this month, The House of Commons Library published an economic insight article about how slow economic growth could impact the Chancellor’s Budget decisions, The Federation of Small Businesses is urging the Government to ease cost pressures and back entrepreneurship at the Budget, The House of Commons Treasury Committee published details of an evidence session examining the issues facing the Chancellor ahead of the Budget, and The House of Lords recently debated the impact of government economic and taxation policies on jobs, growth, and prosperity, and As part of its inquiry into the draft Finance Bill Clauses, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee held further evidence sessions on 27 October, 3 November and 10 November after the Institute’s UK Tax Manager, Leontia Doran, delivered oral evidence on the changes to agricultural property relief and business property relief to the Committee on 20 October. Ahead of the Scottish Budget which will take place on the later date of 13 January 2026, the Scottish Parliament has published the Finance and Public Administration Committee’s report on pre-budget 2026/27 scrutiny. Revenue Scotland has also published a summary of a round table event held with the Centre for Public Policy to discuss devolution of tax in Scotland. The round table, which is part of a series of events in a year-long celebration to mark Revenue Scotland’s tenth anniversary took place after the Scottish Tax Conference in September. In Wales, the draft 2026/27 Budget was published in October and the detailed draft Budget was published earlier this month, with the final Budget expected to be published on 20 January 2026.  

Revenue is inviting VAT-registered businesses managed by its Large Corporates Division to complete a VAT Modernisation and eInvoicing survey to inform Ireland’s implementation of the EU’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, formally adopted on 11 March 2025. ViDA will require eInvoices and real-time reporting for cross-border B2B supplies across the EU. On 8 October 2025, following Minister Donohoe’s Budget Speech announcement, Revenue’s paper “Implementation of eInvoicing in Ireland” was published. The paper outlines a phased approach, with Phase 1 introducing mandatory eInvoicing and real-time reporting for domestic B2B transactions by VAT-registered large corporates. Receipt of the survey is not a notification that these businesses are mandated to issue eInvoices in Phase 1. The survey has issued directly to businesses through Revenue’s Online Service (ROS), with a timeline to submit responses by 5:00pm on Friday 12 December 2025. Queries can be sent to VATmodernisation@revenue.ie, and all relevant updates on VAT Modernisation will be published at revenue.ie/vatmod. Furter details of Revenue’s plans for the implementation of ViDA requirements were outlined in a previous news item.

Last month HMRC confirmed that its new research and development (R&D) expert advisory panel has been established with the appointment of six independent industry specialists. HMRC has also recently published a new tool that can be used to check if a company has undertaken qualifying R&D before a claim for R&D tax relief is made. The new advisory panel is known as the RDEAP and its aim is to provide sectoral insight and guidance to support the administration of R&D tax reliefs. It meets quarterly and will contribute to HMRC communications, guidance, and the strategic understanding of innovation across sectors. The Chair and Secretariat of the RDEAP are from HMRC’s Corporation Tax Innovation and Growth team. Other HMRC representatives, and representatives from other government departments may be invited to the RDEAP meetings by invitation. The RDEAP is advisory only so does not have decision-making authority, though it may make recommendations to existing governance and decision-making bodies as appropriate. The newly published R&D tool takes users though a number of the key tests which define qualifying R&D for tax purposes. Explanations and links to further guidance are provided. According to HMRC, a competent professional will be needed to help answer some of the questions. Once all of the questions have been answered, HMRC says that the tool will give the user a clear indication of whether or not the project is qualifying R&D.   It is recommended that results are saved and a record is kept of the information used to answer each question to assist with making claims. In the event of a compliance check HMRC says that it is “unlikely to disagree” that a project involves R&D for tax purposes if the answers given when using the tool were “based on your project’s facts and you can clearly support and explain them”. We have also been advised that HMRC does not store or use any of information provided when using the tool.  

Last week, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Simon Harris TD, published a Feedback Statement for Phase One of reform of Ireland’s Taxation regime for Interest. The consultation period will run until 16 January 2026. It follows on from the Public Consultation on the Tax Treatment of Interest in Ireland which had been launched in September 2024 and an Action Plan for the reform of Ireland’s taxation regime for interest published by the Department of Finance on Budget Day. You can read the Institute’s response (under the auspices of the CCAB-I) to that earlier consultation here. The phase one feedback statement outlines a strawman proposal which sets out a possible approach for how the underlying framework for the taxation and deductibility of interest in Ireland may be reformed.  The key areas being examined in the consultation are as follows: Scope of phase one reforms Outline of new interest deductibility rule for corporation tax Transfer pricing Enhancements of the Interest Limitation Rule Transitional and simplification measures Taxation of interest income Taxation and deduction of interest equivalents The Institute will be responding to this consultation under the auspices of the Tax Committee South of CCAB-I. If you would like to submit views for our consideration, you can do so by emailing tax@charteredaccountants.ie.

In this week’s detailed miscellaneous updates which you can read more about below, HMRC are holding a series of webinars for employers and direct recovery of debts has been restarted in a test and learn phase. A new online service is now available to pay the High Income Child Benefit charge via PAYE and HMRC has published a statement setting out the standards that it expects of intermediaries and the steps it will take to tackle the minority of them who cause harm to the UK tax system. In other news this week: The UK has ranked 32nd overall (and 37th on property taxes) out of the 38 OECD member countries in the 2025 International Tax Competitiveness Index, HMRC has published Revenue and Customs Brief 6 (2025): VAT deduction on insurance intermediary services supplied outside the UK, which sets out HMRC’s policy following the First Tier Tribunal decision in Hastings Insurance Service LTD [2025] UKFTT 275 (TC), The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published How are frozen tax thresholds reshaping who pays personal taxes? and Changes to departmental spending at the upcoming Budget, HMRC advises that a successful fix for the Class 2 National Insurance Contributions issue was deployed at the end of September. This is confirmed in the latest Agent Update, HMRC is holding a webinar on 2 December on Transfer of Assets Abroad, HMRCs approach to The Motive Defence,  The latest schedule of HMRC Talking Points live and recorded webinars for tax agents are available for booking. Spaces are limited, so take a look now and save your place, and Check HMRC’s online services availability page for details of planned downtime and the online services affected. Upcoming webinars for employers Whether you’re reimbursing employees using their own vehicles at approved mileage rates, providing company cars for business travel, or paying statutory maternity or paternity pay, HMRC’s live webinars have you covered. Questions can be asked during the live webinar by using the text box. The following live webinars are available to book: Company cars, vans and fuel, Statutory sick pay, Statutory maternity and paternity pay, and Travel. HMRC restarts direct recovery of debts If an individual or business has a tax debt which remains unpaid despite having the means to pay it, HMRC can recover the funds it is owed directly from the taxpayer’s bank or building society account. These powers, known as direct recovery of debt (DRD), first started in 2015 and were used sparingly before all DRD activity was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. HMRC has published an updated briefing on DRD. After the announcement made in the 2025 Spring Statement 2025, HMRC recently confirmed that it has restarted DRD in a “test and learn phase”. According to HMRC, DRD was a strong deterrent and the decision to restart activity has been made against its backdrop of efforts to reduce tax debt. Pay the High Income Child Benefit charge (HICBC) online via PAYE HMRC recently launched its new online service for paying the HICBC through PAYE. This was previously announced at the Spring Statement 2025. In order to use the new service, taxpayers first need to de-register from income tax self-assessment which HMRC won’t do automatically. Once this is done, the taxpayer should be able to use the online HICBC PAYE service the next day. HMRC’s approach to intermediary harm HMRC has published a statement outlining the standards it expects of intermediaries (which includes accountants and financial advisers) and the steps it will take to address the minority of intermediaries who cause harm to the tax system. Intermediary is defined as an individual or business that sits between taxpayer and HMRC. The statement says that while most intermediaries provide valuable services, a minority can behave in ways that are harmful, such as misleading the public or using HMRC's rules improperly. In cases of harm, HMRC may take action such as blocking access to its services or criminal action where fraud is involved. Advice for taxpayers on how to choose an intermediary also features.

The second evaluation of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC) has been published by the European Commission and  concludes that the DAC provides a well-functioning legal framework which supports Member States in their fight against tax fraud, evasion and avoidance. The report also recognises the need to consolidate and simplify the DAC, with increased consistency of application across all Member States to ensure fair taxation in the EU. 

In this week’s cross-border trading corner, we bring you the latest guidance updates and publications. The most recent Trader Support Service bulletin is also available as is the latest Brexit and Beyond newsletter from the Northern Ireland Assembly EU Affairs team which takes an in-depth look at the House of Lords Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee’s evidence session on veterinary medicines and the Windsor Framework. The minutes and slides from the 30 September 2025 meeting of HMRC’s Northern Ireland Joint Customs Consultation Committee which the Institute is represented on are available and HMRC has shared a recording of a recent webinar on ICS2 in addition to the FAQs used in the webinar. Miscellaneous guidance updates and publications This week’s miscellaneous guidance updates and publications are as follows: Data Element 2/3: Documents and Other Reference Codes (Union) of the Customs Declaration Service, CDS Declaration Completion Instructions for Imports, Report a problem using the Customs Declaration Service, Reference Documents for The Customs Tariff (Preferential Trade Arrangements) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, and Get customs data for import and export declarations.

The OECD has published a report on the taxation of cross-border investment activity. The report considers ways to support simplification, foster tax certainty and reduce compliance costs in the cross-border business tax system for both taxpayers and tax administrations.