Building on the package of tax gap measures which were announced at the Autumn Budget, a further series of announcements were made which included the extension of Making Tax Digital for income tax to even smaller businesses which we report on in more detail in a separate news item. Debt management and compliance investment  According to the government, at the end of 2024, the stock of tax debt (unpaid tax liabilities owed to HMRC) was over £44 billion, more than double the level five years ago. In order to reduce this, the government is further investing in HMRC’s debt management capacity which will include ‘an innovative test and learn pilot to collect more aged debts whilst also moving towards more automated debt recovery.  The government is also investing £87 million over the next five years in HMRC’s existing partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies to collect more unpaid tax debts. An additional £114 million will be invested over the next five years to recruit an additional 600 HMRC debt management staff; 500 more HMRC compliance staff will also be recruited via a £100 million investment.  Late payment penalties  Late payment penalties for VAT and income tax self-assessment taxpayers (as they join MTD) will increase from April 2025 onwards. The new rates will be 3 percent of the tax outstanding where tax is overdue by 15 days, plus an additional 3 percent where the tax is overdue by 30 days, plus an additional 10 percent per annum when overdue by 31 days or more. Consultations  The government also published four new consultations to support HMRC’s efforts in closing the tax gap: How HMRC can make better use of third party data to increase automation and close the tax gap – closes 21 May 2025 Proposals to strengthen HMRC’s ability to take action against those tax advisers who facilitate noncompliance from their clients – closes 7 May 2025 Closing in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance, whose contrived schemes leave their clients with unexpected tax bills – closes 18 June 2025, and Options to simplify and strengthen HMRC’s inaccuracy and failure to notify penalties – closes 18 June 2025. Counter-fraud capability and investigations  Additional criminal investigations will focus on delivering a strong deterrent. This will include tackling those who undermine legitimate trade and small business, fraud committed by the wealthy, fraud facilitated by those in large corporations, and by individuals and companies who make it possible for others to hide money offshore. Investigations will also address organised criminal attacks, focusing on illicit finance and complex money laundering schemes.   As part of the overall investment in HMRC resourcing, HMRC is overhauling its approach to offshore tax noncompliance by the wealthy, recruiting experts in private sector wealth management and deploying AI and advanced analytics to help identify and challenge those who try to hide their wealth, wherever they try to hide it.   During the next five years, the government will increase HMRC’s resources assigned to tackling wealthy offshore noncompliance by around 400 people, who are estimated to bring in over £500 million over the forecast period.   New informant reward scheme  A new HMRC reward scheme for informants will be launched later this year, with the aim of targeting serious noncompliance in large corporates, wealthy individuals, offshore and avoidance schemes. The new scheme will take inspiration from the successful US and Canadian models, rewarding informants with compensation linked to a percentage of any tax taken as a result of their actions.  Phoenixism  To tackle ‘phoenixism’, HMRC, Companies House, and the Insolvency Service will deliver a joint plan to tackle those using contrived insolvencies to evade tax and write off debts owed to others. This includes increasing the use of upfront payment demands, making more directors personally liable for company taxes, and increasing the number of enforcement sanctions to double the amount of tax protected to £250 million by 2026/27.   Change at HMRC  The government will also accelerate change at HMRC, including through introducing voice biometrics, using AI in taxpayer services and compliance, and running a customs digitalisation pilot sharing trusted trader credentials with US Customs and Border Protection.   Tax simplification  Further measures will be announced later in the spring to simplify the tax and customs systems, and in the summer, HMRC will publish a transformation roadmap. These measures will aim to collectively reduce administrative burdens so businesses and individual taxpayers spend less time on tax and customs administration.   Direct recovery of tax debts   HMRC will re-start ‘direct recovery’ of tax debts owed by individuals and companies who have the ability to pay but choose not to do so. The government will also explore options to automate the process for collecting lower value tax debts.   

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax is being extended to sole trades and landlords with qualifying income of more than £20,000 from April 2028. The Government also announced further changes to MTD as set out in the technical note “Modernising the tax system through Making Tax Digital”, details of which are provided below. The Institute has been engaging extensively with HMRC, together with the other professional bodies, to raise the impact of this major change to income tax reporting on individuals and their agents and the challenges that this will present.  There is now just over a year to the first tranche of mandation of MTD for income tax which will commence from April 2026 for those with gross income of over £50,000 and from April 2027 for those with gross income over £30,000. Even more worryingly, the government has also said that it will continue to explore ‘how it can best bring the benefits of digitalisation to more of the around four million taxpayers who have income below the £20,000 threshold’.  We will be discussing the MTD for income tax Spring Statement measures and announcements with HMRC via various stakeholder forum meetings in the coming weeks and months. Despite our reservations about MTD, the Institute will continue to work with HMRC on MTD readiness and is developing a cross-department MTD strategy to assist members in their preparations. We will also continue to represent members views as we approach April 2026 and will be conducting a short survey on MTD for income tax in next week’s Tax News.  End-of-year tax reporting for MTD   Some users of MTD for income tax will have other sources of income that need to be reported in Self-Assessment (SA). These additional income sources must be reported at the end of the tax year, alongside any necessary adjustments to their business income and expenses.   Previously, users would have been able to use HMRC’s online filing service to submit their final tax return. HMRC has now announced that its online filing service will not be available to do so and that MTD taxpayers must file their tax return through their MTD software. The government will adopt this change and introduce legislation ahead of April 2026.   One or more MTD-compatible software products will therefore be needed to meet SA filing obligations which makes the choice of software used by the agent/taxpayer of extreme importance.   Exempting/deferring certain groups from MTD  The government believes that some taxpayer groups will face disproportionate barriers to operating MTD and should be exempt. The following groups will therefore not be required to use MTD for income tax, (subject to notifying and satisfying HMRC that they are exempt):   taxpayers who have a power of attorney, ·non-UK tax resident foreign entertainers/sportspeople who have no other income sources that count as qualifying income for MTD, and taxpayers for whom HMRC cannot provide a digital service. The following groups will also not be required to join MTD for income tax over the course of this Parliament:   ministers of religion, Lloyd’s Underwriters, recipients of the married couples’ allowance, and recipients of the blind persons’ allowance. Additionally, individuals will not be required to use MTD until April 2027 if they have information that they would need to submit using the SA109 schedule. HMRC will work with stakeholders to finalise the design of a one-year deferral for these groups to allow time to incorporate into MTD the government’s changes to the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals.   Legislation will therefore be introduced to defer/exempt these groups and the criteria for deferrals/exemptions will be set out in guidance once the legislation is finalised.   Finalising the policy framework for MTD and penalty reform  The government has announced several further changes to the design of MTD and penalty reform. These include:  changes to enable taxpayers with an accounting date of 31 March to start their MTD obligations on 1 April in the first year of operating MTD which will avoid the need for burdensome manual adjustments at the end of the tax year, and a power for HMRC to cancel/reset late submission penalty points and to cancel associated financial penalties; this enables HMRC to cancel penalty points, for instance, in periods prior to insolvency, so that penalty reform reflects HMRC’s general approach to insolvent taxpayers. HMRC will continue to engage stakeholders on these changes before legislation is introduced ahead of April 2026. 

HMRC has commenced sending letters on Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax to agents it believes will have clients mandated to meet the requirements of MTD when it commences from April 2026 for unincorporated sole trade businesses and landlords with turnover exceeding £50,000. The letters will be followed by targeted letters to the same agent’s potentially mandated clients. This is part of a wider comms plan to raise awareness of MTD. The agent letters are available here and the client letters are available here. HMRC is also starting to host webinars on MTD for income tax. The webinar on 25 March 2025 is already full but there is availability for the next webinar on 3 April 2025. These are the first in a series of three webinars aimed at agents. The webinar on 3 April will focus on how to get ready and sign up for MTD income tax. HMRC has also added an additional software provider, IRIS accountancy suite, to the list of software products currently available for taxpayers who have volunteered to test MTD for income tax. This brings the total number of software products to 18.