In this week’s miscellaneous updates: HMRC has published the company car advisory fuel rates applicable from 1 June 2025,   The latest HMRC Stakeholder Digest is available, and   The Government has announced that the UK and Isle of Man will work together to “explore ways to further enhance information flows” to combat tax avoidance and evasion.   

Ahead of the publication of its annual report and accounts which usually takes place in July, last week HMRC published a provisional update on its phone performance. The update was published just the day before HMRC experienced a major phone outage on Wednesday 4 June. The outage happened on the same day that HMRC senior officials appeared before the House of Commons Treasury Committee.   According to the provisional update, in March 2025, HMRC handled 80.2 percent of calls, up from 71.5 percent for the year to 31 March 2025. The Department took 14 minutes and 44 seconds on average to answer a call, down from 18 minutes and 38 seconds for the year to 31 March 2025.  At HMRC’s Treasury Committee hearing, it was stressed that the phone outage on Wednesday was not related to the announcement of the loss of £47 million as a result of phishing attacks and that the lines themselves were not down but had instead been closed because the system used to handle incoming calls had experienced an outage. According to the appearance, the phone line set up for recipients of the phishing fraud letter was unaffected.  The news of the recent phishing scam and HMRC’s customer service levels were discussed at the Treasury Committee hearing in addition to:  HMRC's priorities for the next three to five years,  HMRC’s collection of taxes from wealthy individuals following the recent publication of a National Audit Office Report,  The exodus of wealthy taxpayers from the UK, and  HMRC delays in processing refunds.   HMRC’s new Permanent Secretary and CEO JP Marks appeared in front of Committee for the first time last week. A full transcript from the hearing has not yet been published but will be available here. 

The European Commission recently published reports looking at each Member State’s economic and social developments and challenges, and assessing the extent to which these are addressed by national policies. In the report on Ireland, the Commission highlighted the solid growth and resilience of the Irish economy, noting that public finances are in a strong headline position. In terms of current barriers to private and public investment, the report highlights infrastructure deficits, labour and skill shortages, and high costs of doing business as the main challenges.

Last week, the European Commission set the EU budget at €193.26 billion for 2026. The budget is aimed at supporting strategic objectives, including support for Ukraine, competitiveness, migration management, security and defence, and strategic investments, while maintaining momentum on green and digital priorities. The budget is complemented by approximately €105.32 billion in disbursements under NextGenerationEU,which is a fund to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and make the EU fit for the future.

Last week HMRC contacted the Institute ahead of the announcement that taxpayers have been targeted by criminals creating and/or accessing their online HMRC accounts to set out what had happened and what action it was taking. HMRC’s security systems detected unauthorised access to some online accounts (particularly inactive accounts), and the creation of new credentials, which has ultimately resulted in approximately £47 million in fraudulent tax repayments being paid out. This loss has been directly suffered by HMRC and not individual taxpayers.  Between 4 and 25 June 2025, HMRC is contacting affected individuals by letter to explain the incident, including how they can restore access to their online accounts if necessary. The full briefing received by the Institute from HMRC is available here. In discussions with HMRC we were also made aware that a much larger sum of over double the amount lost in fraudulent repayments was stopped by HMRC during this incident.    The letters being sent also explain how the person can contact HMRC if they have any concerns. Only those individuals with affected accounts are being contacted. Anyone receiving contact from HMRC can check if the letter is genuine on GOV.UK.   According to HMRC, it has protected the affected accounts by deleting the associated log-in credentials i.e. the government gateway user ID and password. Any incorrect information has also been removed from the individuals’ tax records, and a check has been performed that no other details were changed.   HMRC provided more information on this incident during an evidence hearing of the House of Commons Treasury Committee last week. According to this, the criminals involved used information obtained from non-HMRC sources via phishing attacks on individuals as opposed to this being a cyber breach of HMRC systems. The attack has impacted on around 100,000 individuals, mostly in PAYE, at a cost of £47 million in fraudulent repayments. Overall, in its evidence to the Committee, HMRC says that it protected the loss of nearly £2 billion in criminal attacks in 2024/25.  Often the taxpayer did not have an active online tax account hence the criminals set up new accounts and credentials. HMRC has also said that work on this issue has been ongoing for some time, with some arrests made in 2024. Discussions with HMRC also highlighted that the majority of the taxpayers involved are not represented by an agent and comprise 0.22 percent of all online tax accounts.  

In Irish news this week, Chartered Accountants Ireland launches its Pre-Budget 2026 submission and Revenue has confirmed that the facility to file draft iXBRL accounts will be withdrawn from 1 January 2026.  In UK news, HMRC has enshrined into legislation a long-standing VAT concession and there’s still time to share your views on the consultation examining reform of behavioural penalties. In International news, the OECD has published the consolidated text of the Common Reporting Standard (2025). Ireland 1. Read about the Pre-Budget 2026 submission compiled by the Institute, under the auspices of CCAB-I. 2. Revenue has confirmed that draft financial statements in iXBRL format will no longer be accepted from 1 January 2026. UK 3. In this week’s miscellaneous updates, HMRC has incorporated a VAT concession into law which allows additional time for deregistered businesses to submit a final VAT return. 4. There’s still time to share your thoughts on the reform of behavioural penalties. International 5. Read about the consolidated text of the Common Reporting Standard (2025) report recently published by the OECD. 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 here.

Revenue has updated two electronic share trading guides, the Euroclear manual and the Crest manual to outline current work practices and to provide further clarifications throughout the manuals.

Last week, the year-to-date economic performance for Ireland was discussed with the Taoiseach at a Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Services Reform and Digitalisation. At the meeting, Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe discussed the current trade tensions, de-globalisation, developments and outlook for the Irish economy and the Government’s policy response. In the opening statement, the Minister said: “Despite trade, geopolitical and other headwinds, incoming data confirm a strong start to the year. Looking ahead, however, the outlook for this year and next is dominated by uncertainty. Against a backdrop of de-coupling, the priority must be to double-down on our ability to attract high value-added investment and jobs to our country. Earlier this month, my department published its spring forecasts, as part of the Annual Progress Report. The key message from our analysis is that uncertainty is prompting households to increase precautionary savings and prompting firms to delay, or even postpone, investment” Details of the annual progress report and our related commentary can be read in a previous Tax Newsletter item.

Revenue has advised that it will be issuing a notice to all companies who have claimed the Research and Development (R&D) tax credit outlining common errors observed in claims being submitted. In the notice, Revenue outlines that making an R&D tax credit claim is a self-assessment process, hence the onus is on the claimant to ensure that a valid claim is made within the 12-month statutory time limit. The notice also confirms that Revenue does not have discretion when applying the R&D legislative provisions. The notice also encourages all claimants to review the accuracy of any R&D claim submitted or to be submitted to ensure a valid claim is made. Notices will also be sent to the agent for the relevant company.

Revenue has confirmed in guidance, ‘Submission of iXBRL Financial Statements as part of Corporation Tax Returns’, that draft financial statements in iXBRL format will not be accepted from 1 January 2026. Currently, by concession, Revenue accepts the filing of draft financial statements in iXBRL format in limited circumstances. In cases where the concession applies, draft financial statements can be filed, without prior permission from Revenue, if the filer is satisfied that director sign off of the financial statements is the only outstanding item. Where other issues are giving rise to the draft/provisional financial statements, filers are currently required to contact the Revenue Branch which handles their affairs. From 1 January 2026, draft Financial Statements in iXBRL format will not be accepted; companies experiencing genuine difficulties in meeting iXBRL filing deadlines will be required to contact their operational branch within Revenue. Revenue has also confirmed that the 2025 Irish extension taxonomies for FRS 101, FRS 102 and EU IFRS will be accepted from 1 July 2025, while the FRS 101 + DPL, FRS 102 + DPL and EU IFRS + DPL taxonomies with a date of 1 September 2017 will no longer be accepted from the same date.

Over the weekend, Chartered Accountants Ireland, under the auspices of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies – Ireland (CCAB-I), launched this year’s Pre-Budget 2026 submission, titled “Addressing the ongoing housing shortage”. You can read the full submission here. With 1 in 4 SMEs reporting that their business has lost employees or seen prospective employees unable to take roles due to the unavailability of affordable housing, the lack of housing is now clearly both a business as well as a social issue. CCAB-I notes this market failure, and calls for a targeted, time bound and regularly reviewed tax intervention to correct it. As well as housing, we are calling on the Government to address certain ‘quick wins’ to ease the regulatory and compliance burden on businesses. We are also asking the Government to enhance tax reliefs specifically with the needs of SMEs in mind, and to commit to no further increases in Employers’ PRSI to 2028 to manage the substantial increases in the cost of doing business. Businesses are facing substantially increased compliance and regulatory burdens. As part of our mandate to voice areas where Government could simplify reporting requirements for businesses without compromising the information required, we have identified some areas where the Government can score ‘quick wins’. These are: Simplify tax filing by introducing a single pay-and-file date for capital gains tax aligned with the annual income tax return. Simplify the reporting of tax-free small benefits and expenses (the Enhanced Reporting Requirements rules) by replacing real-time reporting with monthly or quarterly returns. CCAB-I also recommends that penalties of €4,000 that are potentially chargeable where a reportable item is missed are made proportionate with the fact that the payments are non-taxable. Introduce legislation enabling businesses to provide their staff with reasonable levels of hospitality while working without having to apply a benefit-in-kind tax charge. This would provide much needed certainty to business as to what they can provide in terms of lunches and teas and coffees and would critically support the local economy and hospitality sector. As we operate within a self-assessment tax system, employers should be empowered to determine what is a reasonable accommodation. In addition to the ever-increasing compliance and regulatory burden on businesses, SMEs continue to need support, particularly given the impact of the significant increases in the cost of doing business. As such, we are calling on the Government to address the following areas: Government should commit to no further increases in the rate of Employers’ PRSI for the next four years. Incremental increases across all classes of PRSI are planned up to 2028. Consideration should also be given to reducing the rate of Employers’ PRSI on minimum wage workers by 1.5 percent to help with the initial costs of pension auto enrolment which will likely come in next year. Broaden the eligibility criteria for the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP), so indigenous SMEs can benefit from the relief. Enhance the Research & Development tax credit regime for SMEs and broaden the scope for claiming costs relating to third parties.  

The OECD has published the consolidated text of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) 2025. The CRS scope has been expanded to include specific electronic money products, central bank digital currencies and indirect investments in crypto-assets, through derivatives and investment vehicles. In addition, amendments have been made to strengthen the due diligence and reporting requirements and to provide a carve out for genuine non-profit organisations.