The second 2024/25 self-assessment (SA) payment on account for income tax and Class 4 National Insurance Contributions (NICs) is due for payment on or before midnight on Thursday 31 July 2025. Anyone who is self-employed is required to make two payments on account for 2024/25 unless: Their 2023/24 SA tax bill was less than £1,000, or  More than 80 percent of all the tax owed in 2023/24 was deducted at source, for example via PAYE.  Each payment on account made should be 50 percent of the person’s total income tax and Class 4 NICs liability for 2023/24. If the final tax liability in 2024/25 is greater than the total payments on account made, a balancing payment will be due on or before 31 January 2026.  If a taxpayer knows that their tax bill for 2024/25 is going to be lower than that in 2023/24, a claim can be made to HMRC to reduce payments on account. 

In a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, it is confirmed that draft clauses for the next Finance Bill will be published next week on Monday 21 July 2025. These are expected to cover pre-announced policy changes (there are no details of precisely what though) and will include “accompanying explanatory notes, tax information and impact notes, responses to consultations and other supporting documents”. This is traditionally known as legislation day or ‘L-day’. Coverage of L-day will feature in Chartered Accountants Tax News in due course. It remains unclear precisely which policy changes we may see draft legislation published for next week, particularly if drafting is still in progress for areas such as recent consultations or where decisions are still being made on the final details of specific policies. There is, however, some speculation that we may see draft clauses for the controversial changes to inheritance tax, including the curtailing of agricultural property relief and business property relief. The Institute has previously written to the Government on this and also responded to the technical consultation which took place earlier this year.

This is the key recommendation of the Institute’s Northern Ireland Tax Committee, chaired by Janette Burns, in its response last week to the UK Government consultation ‘Transfer pricing scope and documentation’. This consultation proposes to remove the medium sized transfer pricing exemption for cross-border transactions, which as the Committee has highlighted, will have a disproportionate impact in Northern Ireland for transactions with its nearest neighbour, Ireland. For that reason, the Committee recommends that the medium sized exemption remains for these transactions. The Committee also recommended that there be a transition period of at least three years before removal of the medium sized exemption, if this proceeds. It also took the opportunity to highlight the need for the regional impact of policy changes to be embedded throughout the UK tax policy consultation and implementation cycle in future.

In Irish news this week, we update you on our recent advocacy work in raising some of the issues affecting the all-island labour market and the Fiscal Monitor for June 2025 has been released. In UK news, read about the Institute’s recent meeting with HMRC to discuss the 2025 Spending Review and HMRC will deliver a webinar in September on Making Tax Digital for income tax. In International news, the FISC Subcommittee are meeting relevant stakeholders in Dublin this month to discuss Irish tax policies and to engage on critical issues. Irish 1. Read about the advocacy work undertaken by the Institute to highlight barriers to an all-island labour market. 2. The Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have published the Fiscal Monitor for June 2025 which confirms an Exchequer surplus of €4.5 billion to the end of June. UK 3. The Institute met recently with HMRC to discuss the 2025 Spending Review. 4. HMRC will be delivering a webinar for our members in September on Making Tax Digital for income tax.   International 5. Read about the upcoming visit by the FISC Subcommittee to Dublin later this month. 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.    

The European Commission has put forward a Recommendation on Tax Incentives to support the Clean Industrial Deal (CID) to build a competitive, climate-neutral industrial base. The initiative outlines a comprehensive framework to assist  Member States with designing cost-effective tax measures that stimulate investment in clean technologies and industrial decarbonisation.

Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) is a joint initiative of the OECD and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The OECD has published a report that charts the evolution of the initiative, highlights key milestones and examines the results achieved by TIWB over the past decade. The report also explores how TIWB will continue to innovate and explore opportunities to meet the rising demand for practical, hands-on capacity building from tax administrations worldwide.

The OECD has published a report which provides an overview of the activities by countries in 2024 and the results of effective collaboration in addressing tax evasion and avoidance, improving revenue mobilisation, and in advancing tax policy and administration reforms. The report also summarises a recently concluded independent evaluation of the group’s tax and development work

On 22 July,  members of the FISC Subcommittee will travel to Dublin for a day of meetings and discussions on tax policies, the fight against tax avoidance and tax simplification. The objectives of the visit are to gain a better understanding of Irish tax policies and to have direct engagement by the subcommittee with key policymakers, tax authorities and stakeholders on critical issues

Revenue has updated the tax and duty manual Addresses in Company cases to provide more comprehensive guidance for companies on how to update their official and/or business addresses through ROS or myAccount. The manual confirms that all relevant requests must be raised via ROS.

Revenue has updated guidance in several collection tax and duty manuals including the guidance on the Standards in Public Office (SIPO) tax clearance, the agents guide to the Collector General’s division and the guidance on using online payment methods. The stamp duty manual relating to property searches has also been updated. The guide on Tax Clearance for Standards in Public Office applicants has been updated to reflect a reference to the judicial appointments commission and to include relevant contact information. The updated guidance on property searches using PRAI and ST21 returns and property valuations replaces references to the Property Registration Authority with ‘Tailte Eireann’. The manual on using online methods to make a payment to Revenue has been updated to confirm that from 1 September 2025,Revenue will no longer accept payment by means of a commercial debit card. The revised agents guide to the Collector-General’s division notes that Revenue has removed the facility to pay tax liabilities by single debit authority from multiple paper returns. The guide also outlines that Revenue will not accept payment by means of a commercial debit card from 1 September 2025.  

Revenue has released a four-part video presentation providing guidelines on completing the research and development (R&D) tax credit panels on Form CT1 for 2024. The videos cover R&D expenditure incurred in the accounting year ended 2024 as well as any remaining instalments due from 2022 and 2023. Each video covers certain topics as follows: Part 1 covers the relevant legislation, including how to correctly complete the sections for grants and subcontractor costs. Part 2 outlines how to claim for carried forward amounts under section 766(4B) TCA 1997, including guidance on completing the relevant panels on the Form CT1 in respect of the instalments from years 2022 and 2023. Part 3a and 3b cover how to make claims under section 766C TCA 1997. Part 4 explains how to claim group relief and highlights common errors made when completing the Form CT1 for 2024. The links to the videos are available on a dedicated Revenue webpage.

Revenue has issued new guidance on the VAT treatment of admission to events outlining the relevant place of supply rules for events and related ancillary services. The guidance also sets out the new place of supply rules, effective from 1 January 2025, for virtual or streamed events delivered to non-taxable individuals. The relevant place of supply rules will be determined by considering whether the event is a physical event, a virtual event or an electronically supplied service and if the supply is to a non-taxable person or to a business. A useful summary table is included in section 4.4 of the guidance summarising the various rules. The guidance confirms that the rate of VAT applicable to admission to an event depends on the type of event being held. Ancillary services associated with admission to an event follow the same place of supply rules applicable to the event itself. The manual relating to the VAT treatment of education and vocational training has also been updated as it includes a consequential amendment arising from the new place of supply rules.