Revenue has updated its guidance on Revenue Procedures for Personal Insolvency Caseworking. The updates relate to the following: The Collector General’s Personal Insolvency unit. The collection of dividends due for a Debt Settlement Arrangement (DSA) or Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA). The minimum information requirements needed before Revenue will consider a DSA. Information on Capital Acquisitions Tax.

The Tax and Duty Manual covering the EU Minimum Taxation Directive has been updated to reflect Finance Act 2024. The changes include the following: The application of rules relating to deferred tax and the approaches which a constituent entity may use to track deferred tax. These include details on an order of utilisation rule in relation to a loss deferred tax asset. The allocation of certain covered taxes to a constituent entity that is a hybrid entity or a reverse hybrid entity, and to allow for an election to exclude the allocation of certain deferred tax expenses and benefits to a jurisdiction. Updates with respect to the transitional CbCR safe harbour, including anti-avoidance provisions with respect to “hybrid arbitrage arrangements”. Rules to be used by eligible groups for non-material constituent entities to be applied under the “Simplified Calculations Safe Harbour”. Standalone investment undertakings, as defined, shall not be chargeable to the domestic top-up tax. The domestic top-up tax liability in respect of a securitisation entity can be imposed on another constituent entity of the multinational group or, in certain circumstances, on the securitisation entity itself. Clarifications on the operation of the provision relating to the calculation of domestic top-up tax. Other amendments have been reflected throughout the manual to ensure that the Pillar Two legislation operates as intended. The appendix has been updated to reflect all relevant references.

Revenue has updated its guidelines on Capital Acquisitions Tax Collection and Enforcement to include additional information and guidance. A new table has been included outlining the current capital acquisitions tax (CAT) thresholds and further details on CAT online payment options have been included in the appendix. The manual reflects the increase in the flat-rate addition for farmers from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent with effect from 1 January 2025 and the separate interest rates applying where phased payment arrangements are entered into in relation to agricultural and or business property. References to a voluntary judgment mortgage have been removed from the manual.

Revenue has updated its guidance on Employer Provided Vehicles to reflect Finance Act 2024. A benefit-in-kind (BIK) exemption is available for the installation of a battery electric vehicle home charger by an employer at a director or an employee’s private residence. Certain conditions must be satisfied to avail of this exemption, including a condition that the employer must retain ownership of the charging facility. Any amounts paid by the employer for the maintenance of the qualifying charging facility will also be exempt provided all the conditions are met. Finance Act 2024 provides for the following temporary measures, to be used when calculating the BIK amount on employer provided vehicles, to be extended to apply for the tax year 2025: A reduction of €10,000 to the original market value (OMV) for all vans, electric vehicles and certain cars, and A reduction of 4,000 kilometres to the highest mileage band, reducing it from 52,001 kilometres to 48,001 kilometres. The manual includes refreshed and updated examples which aim to provide additional guidance.

The deadline for filing the annual share scheme returns for 2024 due by employers and trustees operating share schemes is 31 March 2025. The relevant forms include Form ESA, Form RSS1, Form KEEP1, Form ESS1, Form SRSO1 and Form ESOT1. New versions of the forms are now available which incorporate changes relating to accessibility details, penalties, and the number of line entries. The new forms and information on the filing obligations are available on Revenue’s share reporting obligations webpage.

The Council has taken a significant step towards simplifying tax procedures and reducing administrative burdens on businesses by its adoption of a new legislative package on electronic VAT Exemption Certificates. The electronic VAT Exemption Certificate will be mandatory from 30 June 2032.

HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) team will be in Northern Ireland next week on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 March and would like to visit/meet with some agents to talk about MTD for income tax. With just over one year to the first tranche of mandation from April 2026, we would encourage small and medium sized firms in particular to consider taking up this unique opportunity for a face to face meeting. If your firm would like to meet with HMRC, please contact us by email to take forward. HMRC has also recently updated the list of available software for MTD for income tax with sixteen products now available to choose from.

Member States have updated the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes on 18 February 2025 as part of the EU's commitment to promoting tax transparency and fair taxation globally. No new jurisdictions were added to the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions (Annex I).

Finance Bill 2024-25 continues its path through the parliamentary process. Committee stage for the Bill concluded at the end of last month with a number of government amendments passed affecting a range of areas including the UK’s Pillar Two rules and the abolition of the remittance basis regime for non-UK domiciled individuals from 6 April 2025. The Bill is now due to have its report stage and third reading next week on Monday 3 March. Amendments can be made to the Bill at this stage. These are selected by the speaker. However, report stage is the last opportunity for amendments to be made before third reading takes place after which the Bill will move to the House of Lords.

In this week’s miscellaneous updates, the latest Agent Update is available and HMRC has sent a reminder email that the new legislation for alcohol approvals, returns and payments went live from the start of February with the associated online service to be launched from the end of this week on 1 March 2025. HMRC has responded to the latest annual report from the Adjudicator's Office and 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. HMRC is also holding webinars in the coming weeks on “Help with Common Risks in Transfer Pricing Approaches”, and “Employers – what’s new for 2025 to 2026?”. And finally, check HMRC’s online services availability page for details of planned downtime and the online services affected. Agent Update 128 Agent Update: Issue 128 is available now and features news and guidance across a range of areas including: The new default cash basis, Alcohol duty reform, The official rate of interest from 6 April 2025, Statutory neonatal care leave, Getting ready for the changes to employer’s national insurance contributions, and Guidance for clients who need to change the way they report their income and expenses HMRC response to latest Adjudicator's Office annual report HMRC and the Valuation Office Agency’s joint response to the Adjudicator's Office annual report published last September is now available. The Adjudicator’s Office 2024 Annual Report highlighted learnings based on insight from complaints investigated in 2023/24. The Adjudicator’s foreword commented that 2023/24 saw an increase in complaints and requests for reviews (1,046 complaints from HMRC compared to 950 in 2022/23) and that it had been another challenging year for HMRC with HMRC having “struggled to deal with high volumes of complaints. Issues with customers accessing help – primarily through their phone lines – are significant and have been reported in the media.” However, according to the report there “are signs more recently of an improved picture” which was summarised as follows: “HMRC has committed to action aiming to end a peak and trough cycle of complaint handling we have seen over the last few years. There has been a tendency for complaint volumes to increase, for recovery action to be taken that reduces wait times before the cycle begins again. Initiatives to rectify this include greater empowerment of frontline staff to fix problems at first contact before they develop into a complaint. HMRC’s strategic direction is to move more of its activity online. The data suggests that customer satisfaction is considerably better through digital channels and the approach is intended to free up more resource for those who are vulnerable, digitally excluded or have complex issues that require someone to help. A significant step by HMRC this reporting year was its decision to close its Self-Assessment helpline between June and September 2023. HMRC explained that customers using this helpline were more likely to be able to engage with them online, and in doing so, make it easier to speak to customers on the phone who need that support most. In theory, this makes sense. We challenged HMRC to demonstrate the efficacy of its decision. In March 2024, HMRC announced that it would be closing a number of other helplines. It said that it had learned from the initial trial and that in doing so, more people could be moved into digital channels and in doing so, staff would be freed up to deal with vulnerable or digitally excluded customers. However, there was significant feedback on HMRC’s readiness to implement this change without adversely impacting customers and HMRC quickly reversed their decision. This will have inevitably impacted its operational plans and demonstrates the significant pressure HMRC is under to deliver its digital transformation whilst maintaining existing services. It is too early to say that HMRC have in place a long-term sustainable solution that ensures great customer service and complaint handling. We will continue to hold HMRC to account especially in relation to service that is too slow or doesn’t answer the problem raised and for those who find it difficult to interact digitally with HMRC. As we have said before, the mechanism for that is HMRC’s Charter which sets out simply and clearly what HMRC aspires to as a modern, responsive, trusted tax authority.” HMRC responded to the 2024 Annual Report as follows: “The Adjudicator’s Annual Report highlighted the high volume of complaints we received during 2023 to 2024. We acknowledge that this was a difficult period as we faced serious challenges in delivering our customer services because of financial pressures and the need to manage a growing number of customers with complex tax affairs. Reducing demand for traditional contact channels like post and telephone, alongside the deployment of additional customer service advisers, has now enabled us to meet our telephony service standard and more effectively support those who need to speak to an adviser. As noted in our Annual Report and Accounts, our strategy is firmly focused on how we can help more customers get things right first time, rather than fixing problems after they happen, and supporting more customers to self-serve using our online services. As more customers use our digital services, we will ensure that our customer service resource is focused on customers who need additional help.”

The Commission has published Questions and Answers on the US reciprocal tariff policy, noting that VAT is a consumption tax, similar to US sales taxes, and applies indiscriminately to any foreign or domestic business selling goods in the EU.

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 Data Element 2/3: Documents and Other Reference Codes (Union) of the Customs Declaration Service, Using an express operator to import and export, Notices made under The Customs (Import Duty) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018, Notices made under The Customs (Export) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, Get someone to deal with customs for you, Applying to use simplified declarations for exports, Transit newsletters — HMRC updates, Search the register of customs agents and express operators, Apply to pay less duty on goods you export to process or repair,  Apply to import goods temporarily to the UK, and Report a problem using the Customs Declaration Service.