Last week at a conference marking the 20th anniversary of HMRC, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (XST) announced that from 31 March 2025, HMRC will be launching a new email enquiry service for agents to help escalate and resolve individual (and not employer) PAYE and Self-Assessment queries which are over four weeks old. HMRC subsequently provided more details of how the new service will work in an email to agents. For several years, the Institute has been advocating for HMRC to establish an email enquiry service for agents including in last year’s Pre-Budget submission and in a letter at the end of 2024 to HMRC on services. The Institute participates in the new HMRC Stakeholder Forum, the Customer Services for Tax Agents and Representative Bodies Working Group which aims to assess current agent services and to develop improved services for agents contacting HMRC with client queries. This new email enquiry service is an output from that forum which will continue its work including reviewing the workings of the new service. During the XST’s speech at the same event, he reflected on the Government’s vision for the future of HMRC and announced that the Government intends to raise the income tax Self-Assessment reporting threshold for trading income from £1,000 to £3,000 within this Parliament. You can read more about the XST’s speech in an email from HMRC.

The Institute will be responding to the following consultations over the coming weeks and wants to hear your views: Electronic invoicing: promoting e-invoicing across UK businesses and the public sector and Reforms to Inheritance Tax agricultural property relief and business property relief: application in relation to trusts. Email tax@charteredaccountants.ie to participate. Electronic invoicing The purpose of this consultation is to gather views on standardising electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) and how to increase adoption of e-invoicing across UK businesses and the public sector. The consultation explores how different e-invoicing approaches may align with businesses and aims to support the development of a UK approach. The consultation will run to 7 May 2025. Please share your views with us by Friday 18 April 2025. Should you wish to respond individually, responses are being accepted by submitting a form or by email to einvoicingconsultation@hmrc.gov.uk. April 2026 changes to Inheritance Tax (IHT) reliefs - agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) As many readers will be aware, at Autumn Budget 2024 the Government announced controversial reforms to two key IHT reliefs, APR and BPR, which will commence from April 2026. Among the changes include the following amendments: a new £1 million allowance will apply to the combined value of property that qualifies for 100 percent BPR or APR or both - after the £1 million allowance has been exhausted, relief will apply at a lower rate of 50 percent to the combined value of qualifying agricultural and business property, and the rate of BPR will be reduced from 100 percent to 50 percent in all circumstances for shares admitted to trading on a recognised stock exchange which are not ‘listed’. HMRC has now launched a limited technical consultation on this issue. Note that the purpose of this consultation is not for stakeholders to provide feedback on the overall policy change but is instead limited to examining aspects of the application of the £1 million allowance for property settled into trust qualifying for 100 percent APR or BPR. As this is a technical consultation, it is running for a shorter period of time to Wednesday 23 April 2025. The Institute is aware of the damaging impact that these reforms will have on businesses and farms in Northern Ireland and in November 2024 flagged these concerns to the Government. We would encourage members to take the opportunity to respond to this limited technical consultation and express their wider views on this damaging policy change. You can respond by using the online form or by email to aprbpr.consult@hmrc.gov.uk. The Institute again encourages you to share your views on these policy changes as we will again be writing to the Government to highlight the particular damage these changes will cause in Northern Ireland. Please email tax@charteredaccountants.ie by Friday 11 April 2025 with your views.

Last week we highlighted that HMRC is conducting a review of the Agent Online Forum (Agent Forum) as there is concern that the forum is not working as intended. The Agent Forum is for tax agents who are members of a professional body and its aim is to enable agents to report issues about HMRC systems that are affecting taxpayers and their clients with responses received to forum posts from HMRC. If you use the Agent Forum, please email tax@charteredaccountants.ie with your feedback. If you are not already a member of the forum, a profile must first be set up on HMRC’s Customer Forum after which access to the Agent Forum should be requested. HMRC will require your contact details, the name of your professional body and your membership number in order to register you on the Agent Forum. The aim of the forum is to be a place for agents to report issues that are potentially widespread and affect a number of taxpayers or agents therefore it should not be used to raise client specific queries.

We previously notified you about industrial action affecting HMRC’s Employer Helpline and Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) helplines. This has now been extended to 16 May 2025. Read the full message from HMRC below about this further extension. “We have robust plans in place to ensure we continue delivering critical services. HMRC Employer Services phonelines and webchat will be open 8am-6pm as usual but customers may experience longer wait times. We recognise that this is inconvenient for customers and agents who need direct support.  The lines affected are:  Employer Helpline (EHL)   Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) Helpline   There are no expected impacts on other services. We will keep the opening hours and service levels under review, and we will update you in advance of any changes.   We are updating GOV.UK and the recorded message that customers hear when calling the helpline. This tells them about the industrial action, the increased wait times and encourages customers to use our digital services.  We strongly encourage customers to use our digital services rather than waiting to speak to us on the phone. Some of the main topics customers call these helplines about, which they can do online are: get a quick answer to queries using the digital assistant  Check the status of your CIS refund in the ‘Where’s My Reply’ tool – only call us if the date has passed   Check your balance in the Business Tax Account. For technical support with online services use the Online Services Helpdesk.”

In this week’s miscellaneous updates, HMRC is holding a webinar tomorrow on the National Minimum Wage increase from 1 April 2025 and the minutes from two HMRC Stakeholder Forum’s which the Institute is represented on have been published. Amd finally, new GOV.UK content has now been launched on setting up a business as a result of the work of another HMRC forum that the Institute participates in. National Minimum Wage from 1 April 2025 HMRC is holding a webinar on this tomorrow. Read the full email from HMRC below which includes a link to register for the webinar. “The National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates increase from 1‌‌‌ April‌‌‌ 2025. HMRC is offering a live webinar to help employers get ready for the change, as well as talking over some common mistakes employers make. The NMW team are offering a number of live webinars as mistakes are very easy to make. If your clients are a business that makes deductions through payroll, operate salary sacrifice schemes or don’t necessarily pay for all time worked, this webinar is for you. The NMW team are offering a number of live webinars as mistakes are very easy to make. If your clients are a business that makes deductions through payroll, operate salary sacrifice schemes or don’t necessarily pay for all time worked, this webinar is for you. Getting ready for the National Minimum Wage increase Register for this webinar on how we can help you get your clients ready for the new rates and avoid accidentally underpaying your workers. You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions throughout using the on-screen text box. Some other useful steps employers/your clients can take, include: check the new rates identify which staff are due the new rate update payroll systems as soon as possible contact the ACAS helpline to get impartial and confidential advice on paying workers correctly ·visit the 'Calculating the minimum wage' guidance page on GOV.UK for advice on how to perform the right calculations, because NMW is more than just a pay rate.” Stakeholder Forum minutes HMRC has published the minutes of the November 2024 Wealthy External Forum sub-group examining the changes to the taxation of non-doms on GOV. UK. The following guidance has also been published by HMRC’S Wealthy Team: IFM37800 - Carried interest: information provided in a tax return - HMRC internal manual, and IFM37850 - Carried interest: tax packs - HMRC internal manual. The minutes from the 128th Joint VAT Consultative Committee meeting from January 2025 have also been published and are now live on GOV.UK. New content on starting up a business HMRC has published the following new content on GOV.UK as a result of the work of the Guidance Strategy Forum which the Institute participates in: Set up a business, Step 1 of Become a sole trader: What a sole trader is, and Step 1 of Set up a private limited company: Limited companies. The guidance contains a new comparison table format which is not previously done on GOV.UK before. Since the launch there has been a lot of great feedback about how users are finding it useful. This is not the end of this group’s work but is considered to be a major milestone. HMRC is conducting another round of user research with limited companies (and another with sole traders is planned) and is also now conducting impact tracking to see if the changes help users in the way that the new guidance aims to.

In this week’s post EU exit corner, we bring you the latest guidance updates and publications relevant in the post EU exit environment. 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. Miscellaneous guidance updates and publications Apply to operate a customs warehouse, Notices made under the Customs (Special Procedures and Outward Processing) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, Communications resources to help you move goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, Using a special procedure without a prior authorisation, Making an entry summary declaration, External temporary storage facilities codes for Data Element 5/23 of the Customs Declaration Service, Authorised Consignee Temporary Storage (ACTS) location codes for Data Element 5/23 of the Customs Declaration Service, and Reference Documents for The Customs (Tariff Quotas) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.

In Irish news this week, the Fiscal Monitor for February 2025 has been published and the Angel Investor Relief scheme has commenced. In UK news, HMRC wants your feedback on the Agent Online Forum and read about the Northern Ireland Tax Committee’s meeting with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital team. In International news, the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union has released updated guidance on the preferential rules of origin. Ireland 1. The Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have published the Fiscal Monitor for February 2025 which confirms an Exchequer surplus of €3.2 billion to the end of February. 2. Revenue has issued three new Tax and Duty Manuals outlining the Angel Investor Relief Scheme. UK 3. Do you use the Agent Online Forum? HMRC want your feedback. 4. Read about the NI Tax Committee’s meeting with HMRC’s Director of the Making Tax Digital Programme. International 5. Read about the recently updated guidance on the preferential rules of origin. Keep up to date with all the latest Irish, UK, and international tax developments through Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Tax Newsletter. Subscribe to the Tax News by updating your preferences in MyAccount. You can also read this week’s post EU exit corner.

HMRC is conducting a review of the Agent Online Forum (Agent Forum) as there is concern that the forum is not working as intended. The Agent Forum is for tax agents who are members of a professional body and its aim is to enable agents to report issues about HMRC systems that are affecting taxpayers and their clients with responses received to forum posts from HMRC. If you use the Agent Forum, please email tax@charteredaccountants.ie with your feedback. If you are not already a member of the forum, a profile must first be set up on HMRC’s Customer Forum  after which access to the Agent Forum should be requested. HMRC will require your contact details, the name of your professional body and your membership number in order to register you on the Agent Forum. The aim of the forum is to be a place for agents to report issues that are potentially widespread and affect a number of taxpayers or agents therefore it should not be used to raise client specific queries.

The Northern Ireland Tax Committee chaired by Janette Burns met recently for the first time in 2025. A range of issues was on the agenda including Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax which commences in just over a year from April 2026 for unincorporated businesses and landlords with turnover from self-employment and property income exceeding £50,000 in 2024/25. The meeting was attended by several HMRC MTD Programme representatives, including the Programme Director Craig Ogilvie, who gave an update on the current status of this project whilst also reflecting on its challenges. Craig also set out what HMRC’s ambitions are for the next phase of testing in 2025/26, including the supports which will be available to taxpayers and agents. HMRC will be writing to agents who are likely to have clients in the first phase of mandation in the coming months; just one element of a wider comms plan. HMRC is keen to hear about the plans of our member firms to get ready for this major change and, in particular, specifically the reasons why firms are not planning to take part in testing in 2025/26 and what the challenges/blockers are preventing participation. Email tax@charteredaccountants.ie to provide your feedback. The Institute continues to work with HMRC on MTD readiness and is developing a cross-department MTD readiness strategy to assist members in their preparations. Last week HMRC held an MTD event in Belfast on Tuesday 4 March which the Institute was represented at. Another event is to be held in Belfast later in 2025 which we will share details of once available. HMRC’s MTD team, including the Programme Director also presented at the Institute’s Practice Consulting team’s Practice News webinar at the start of February. On the guidance front, HMRC has published an updated version of work out your qualifying income for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. The changes made to this guidance are as follows: Clarified the definition of ‘qualifying income’. This is because HMRC is seeing that various taxpayer types think that other income sources are included under ‘income from self-employment’ e.g. income from a partnership or dividends from their personals service company when they are not, Explanation of ‘latency’, Added a new sub-section on what’s not included, Added new sections on if you use the cash basis and are VAT registered, if the transactions in UK land rules apply, and if you are impacted by basis period reform, and Redesigned the section on residency and removed the concept of domicile which will no longer be relevant from April 2025. These changes align to internal HMRC feedback and policy review but are also based on user feedback from ongoing user research in support of this interactive guidance tool, linked from Find out if and when you can use MTD. The list of available MTD for income tax software has also been updated.

Report stage and third reading of Finance Bill 2024-25 took place last week. In advance, a number of government amendments were tabled and updated explanatory notes published. The Bill’s passage through the House of Commons has now been completed and all Government amendments (and no others) were passed. As the Bill has now moved to the House of Lords, it is considered to be ‘substantively enacted’ for accounting purposes (specifically UK GAAP and IFRS) as Finance Bills cannot be amended by the House of Lords and will only be debated. As this is a formality, the Bill is also now considered to be in its final form. The Government amendments were as follows: Minor changes to the scope of the new residence based inheritance tax regime and to the new temporary repatriation facility including that this will be available on offshore income gains in trusts, Additional relief for visual effects expenditure, and Clarifications to the conditions to be satisfied for payments into decommissioning funds to be treated as decommissioning expenditure for ring fence tax purposes. In other legislative news, the House of Lords agreed amendments to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill at report stage on 25 February 2025. This Bill will implement the changes to employer national insurance contributions announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget. The Bill has now had third reading in the House of Lords and will return to the House of Commons.  

In this week’s miscellaneous updates, the fuel advisory rates applicable from 1 March 2025 are available and HMRC has launched a technical consultation on the impact of the reforms to the inheritance tax (IHT) reliefs, agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) in the context of trusts. The official rate of interest from 6 April 2025 has been set and the latest HMRC performance data is available. HMRC has appeared at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and it has been announced that the free joint filing service provided by HMRC and Companies House will close from April 2026. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published an article looking ahead to the Spring Statement later this month and the consultation outcome for ‘Tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market’ has been published. 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 finally, check HMRC’s online services availability page for details of planned downtime and the online services affected. HMRC technical consultation on reforms to APR and BPR At Autumn Budget 2024 the Government announced controversial changes to APR and BPR for IHT from 6 April 2026. The Institute has previously highlighted to the Government its concerns in relation to these changes particularly in the context of Northern Ireland family owned businesses and farms. These changes will also impact on the IHT payable by trusts comprising property that qualifies for APR and/or BPR where the value of that property exceeds £1 million. The Government has now launched a technical consultation on the application of this £1 million allowance for property settled into trust qualifying for 100 percent APR/BPR. Note however that this consultation is very limited in scope and focuses solely on the technical implications for trusts containing agricultural or business assets. As previously advised by HMRC, the wider policy change announced in the Autumn 2024 Budget is not being consulted on. As a technical consultation, this is running for a shorter period of time and closes on 23 April 2025. Responses can be submitted by using the online form or by sending responses to aprbpr.consult@hmrc.gov.uk. Official rate of interest The Taxes (Interest Rate) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 sets the official rate of interest for calculating the benefit in kind on a beneficial loan at 3.75 percent from 6 April 2025. HMRC has also updated the tables of interest rates for beneficial loan arrangements to reflect the new rate with details of historic rates also available. Latest HMRC performance data The latest HMRC performance data has been published: HMRC quarterly performance updates, HMRC monthly performance reports, HMRC quarterly performance update: October to December 2024, and HMRC monthly performance report December 2024. Members are encouraged to provide feedback on HMRC service levels by email to: tax@charteredaccountants.ie. HMRC appears before PAC HMRC appeared again recently at a PAC hearing where the Committee heard about the impact of fiscal drag amongst a range of other issues. At the hearing, HMRC’s current CEO Sir Jim Harra said ‘The freezing of the tax thresholds mean that more people come into the tax system so there are more people for us to deal with, it also means that more people go into higher rates and our experience is that people’s tax affairs become more complex. This year for example, we’ve seen a very significantly greater number of people whom we have to adjust their PAYE code because of bank and building society interest, and that has certainly driven more customer contact.’ The hearing also discussed why HMRC does not publish data on the cost of tax compliance for individuals, the high level of senior staff in HMRC, and the increasing cost of VAT and corporation tax administration. The hearing is part of the PAC’s inquiry ‘The Cost of the Tax System’ which was opened in response to the National Audit Office’s report on the drivers of cost in the tax system. A full transcript of this appearance will be available on the parliament website in due course. Free company filing service to close from April 2026 In an announcement last week, it was confirmed that from April 2026 the Government’s free online accounts and company tax return service will close meaning small businesses that primarily use this service to file their accounts and company tax returns at the same time with Companies House and HMRC will need to use commercial software for filings on or after 1 April 2026. The announcement comes as a surprise and was not consulted on. From 1 April 2026, companies will only be able to file their annual accounts with Companies House using third party software, web services, or paper filing. However, it will only be possible to use software to file company tax returns with HMRC from 1 April 2026. IFS looks ahead to the Spring Statement In an article looking ahead at the Spring Statement which will take place later this month on Wednesday 26 March, the IFS asks ‘what are the Chancellor’s options if – and it is very much an if – the upcoming Spring Forecast puts her on track to miss her fiscal target?’ The IFS notes that economic developments since the autumn mean that it is possible, but not guaranteed, that the Chancellor will now be missing one or both of the fiscal rules under the Office for Budget Responsibility’s updated forecasts and that this prospect is largely a result of her own earlier decisions. According to the IFS, the Chancellor has two options: ‘The first option would be to prioritise policy stability. The Chancellor could reiterate her commitment to fiscal sustainability and her fiscal rules, but break the letter of those rules – despite them only being legislated in January – and delay any corrective fiscal action to the full fiscal event in the autumn. This would recognise that twice-yearly fine-tuning of tax and spending plans brings costs, and that in an uncertain world there is no meaningful economic difference between a forecast for a small current budget surplus in 2029–30 and a forecast for a small current budget deficit in 2029–30. The second option would be to prioritise the fiscal rules. She could abandon her commitment to holding only one fiscal event per year (at the first time of asking), and announce tax rises or (even) tighter spending plans at the Spring Forecast to achieve a forecast for a current budget surplus in 2029–30. The Chancellor might worry that breaching the letter of her ‘non-negotiable’ rules could send an unwelcome signal and affect financial market participants’ perceptions of this government’s ability or willingness to take difficult fiscal decisions. Delaying decisions to the autumn could also make it harder to adjust public service spending plans (given that multi-year departmental settlements are to be agreed in June) and trigger months of speculation about possible tax rises in the Autumn Budget.’ If the Spring Statement contains tax changes, we will report on these in due course in Chartered Accountants Tax News. Tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market: consultation outcome The Government has published the consultation outcome to ‘Tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market’. As a result, the Employment Rights Bill will be amended to define ‘umbrella companies’ and provide for their regulation by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the new Fair Work Agency (when this body is established). It was also confirmed that, as announced at the Autumn 2024 Budget, the Government will bring forward legislation to move the responsibility to account for PAYE from umbrella companies that employ workers to recruitment agencies that supply their labour to an end client. This will take effect from April 2026 with consultation  expected on the draft legislation later this year

Revenue has updated its Tax and Duty Manual on The Employers Guide to PAYE to reflect the increase in the reporting period for employers who cease to make payments to employees. The notification period has been extended to 30 days.