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. 

The OECD has published a report compiling comparable tax revenue statistics for 27 Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The report notes that tax revenues in the LAC region decreased as a share of GDP in 2023 amid a slowdown in economic activity in the region and a decline in global commodity prices.

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 most recently published Brexit and Beyond newsletter from the Northern Ireland Assembly EU Affairs team. We update you on initial thoughts from the UK Government on the new partnership agreement between the UK and the EU. And finally, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has published new guidance aimed at businesses exporting animal products from Great Britain to the EU which you can read more about in an email from DEFRA. Update on new UK and EU partnership agreement At a meeting last week of the HMRC forum, the Northern Joint Customs Consultative Committee which the Institute is represented on, HMRC advised that there will be no immediate changes to customs procedures as a result of the announcement of the new partnership agreement between the UK and the EU. Any changes and updated guidance will be shared in due course. The overall sense from the UK Government is that the agreement will impact positively on Northern Ireland, particularly in the context of sanitary and phytosanitary checks.                                                                                              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 (National) of the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Additional Procedure Codes, Find customs authorisations for importing and exporting goods, CDS Declaration and Customs Clearance Request Instructions (UK Trade Tariff: volume 3 for CDS), Internal Market Movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, Apply for authorisation for the UK Internal Market Scheme if you bring goods into Northern Ireland, Making an import declaration in your records, Apply to claim a repayment or remission of import duty on ‘at risk’ goods brought into Northern Ireland, Submitting the Internal Market Movement Information, Apply for the UK Carrier Scheme, Apply to make an entry declaration in your records under the UK Internal Market Scheme, Apply for a Notification of Presentation waiver for goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland, Check if you can apply for the UK Carrier Scheme, Categorising goods for Internal Market Movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and Using entry in declarant's records for goods moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

In this week’s detailed miscellaneous updates which you can read more about below, HMRC has published a new Spotlight which examines the use of a capital gains tax (CGT) avoidance scheme, and, the VAT Regulations 1995 have been amended to formalise a longstanding administrative concession regarding the due date for final VAT returns. In other news this week: HMRC is reminding parents of teens to go online to extend their child benefit claim, As US tax reform continues, KPMG has published a useful article explaining how the Bill could impact on UK corporates with US operations, and Fancy yourself as a budding Chancellor of the Exchequer? Ahead of the 2025 Spending Review, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has launched a new ‘Be the Chancellor' tool, which illustrates the key choices and fiscal challenges faced by the current Chancellor, Rachel Reeves. New CGT Spotlight In Spotlight 69, HMRC is warning that individuals who transfer a property business to a LLP which is subsequently put into MVL are involved in a CGT avoidance scheme. Such schemes aim to reduce/avoid a range of taxes as follows: CGT on the disposal of the properties to the LLP which enables a tax-free uplift to be achieved for the CGT base cost of the properties when subsequently disposed by the LLP, stamp duty land tax on the transfer of the properties to the LLP due to the rules for partnerships, and inheritance tax via potential access to business property relief. However, it is HMRC’s view that the scheme does not work as intended therefore HMRC is advising those involved to withdraw and settle their tax affairs by emailing the relevant HMRC team. Administrative concession for final VAT returns enshrined in law HMRC recently amended the VAT Regulations 1995 to formalise a longstanding administrative concession regarding the due date for final VAT returns. You can find the legislation and documents here: The Value Added Tax (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and Amendment to the Value Added Tax Regulations 2025. This amendment will take effect from 13 June 2025. The new legislation explicitly gives HMRC the power to provide businesses with additional time to submit their final return when deregistering from VAT. Currently, the regulations required most businesses to submit a final return within one month and seven days from their effective date of deregistration. However, it has been HMRC practice to provide businesses with one month and seven days from the date it makes the final return available for completion. This allows for any administrative delay during deregistration and gives consistency of treatment by ensuring all businesses have the same amount of time to submit their final return and pay their final VAT bill. HMRC will publish a ‘Direction’ under the amended regulations after it comes into force on 13 June. Although this will only apply in respect of businesses whose effective date of deregistration is on or after 14 June 2025, businesses with a deregistration date prior to this will effectively be treated the same under the current concession.

The European Commission’s VAT Expert Group is looking for new members. The group is composed of business representatives, tax practitioners and academics, and provides advice and expertise to the Commission on the preparation of legislation, initiatives and any other matters relating to the field of VAT. Applications must be sent by 24 June 2025.