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The Institute’s UK Audit Regulations have been revised with effect from 1 June 2025.  The revision introduces a requirement for a sole practitioner firm with UK audit registration to put in place alternate arrangements.   Such arrangements enable a person/firm appointed as alternate to step in promptly where a sole practitioner is incapacitated by illness or other major event that would disrupt and disadvantage the service to their clients. The appointed alternate can be a member of any UK Recognised Supervisory Body (RSB) including the Institute and does not have to be a registered auditor.    In April 2022 the Institute’s Audit Regulations for Ireland introduced the requirement for sole practitioner audit firms in Ireland to put in place alternate arrangements.   Therefore, sole practitioner audit firms with audit registration in both Ireland and the UK should already be compliant with this mandatory alternate requirement now in the UK Audit Regulations. A transitional period of six month is allowed before the obligation becomes compulsory in the UK context. FAQs for Sole Practitioner Auditors (alternate arrangements) are available on the Institute’s website.

Social anxiety - sometimes known as social phobia - is a type of anxiety that causes intense, overwhelming and persistent fear or anxiety surrounding social settings and situations. Social anxiety is more than shyness, it can be extremely distressing and have a huge impact on our quality of life.  It can affect our every day and impact our relationships, performance at work or school, and most of all our self-confidence. Many people worry about social situations from time to time but a person with social anxiety will worry about and catastrophise social situations before, during and after them. Some may have limited or selective social anxiety – they can accomplish activities or particular tasks and go about their day but will experience a certain amount of fear or anxiety when they do, causing a huge emotional toll at times. Some may avoid places or situations that could cause distress due to concerns of being scrutinized, judged or being embarrassed by their actions. For others with severe social anxiety, it can be so intense that they will avoid all social situations and interactions like asking a question in a meeting, taking public transport or using other shared public facilities or eating in public.  Symptoms of Social Anxiety You may have social anxiety if you engage or experience the following: Intense worry or dread about a social situation or activities such as meeting strangers, starting or holding conversations, engaging in group conversations, speaking on the phone, working or shopping Avoid social situations or places where there are other people or try to blend into the background Feel self-conscious or fear doing something embarrassing Missing work or school due to anxiety Concerned others will notice their nervousness or anxiousness Consuming alcohol or other substances to help face social settings For a person with social anxiety, social situations may lead to or cause a whole host of reactions: Blushing, sweating, trembling, dry mouth or difficulty speaking Have a rapid heart rate, dizziness or feeling lightheaded Feel as if their mind goes blank or feel nauseous Difficulty making or maintaining eye control, rigid body posture Overcoming Social Anxiety Social anxiety is difficult to deal with and you should consider talking to your GP or a mental health professional for solutions and tactics to overcoming your anxiety.  Self-help is not a cure but it can help reduce your anxiety and symptoms. It might be a useful first step before trying other treatments.   Understand your anxiety If you suspect you or a loved one are dealing with social anxiety, seek out information to gain a better understanding of it. Research the signs and behaviour, learn about treatment options and seek out research. Compare which social situations you find the most difficult and make you the most anxious. Are there specific situation you struggle with more? Think about how you act in these situations – these reflections and awareness will give you a clearer picture of the specific areas and triggers you may have or why particular social environments induce anxiety. Exposure A core element of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) when dealing with anxiety is exposure therapy. This involves seeking out and engaging in activities where you feel anxious or activities that you avoid to ease discomfort. This can be tough and very daunting at first so best to start with small goals and targets and gradually expose yourself to more difficult activities and ones you fear most. As you begin to understand your triggers and situations that cause anxiety, you can create a list of situations that make you feel anxious and categorise them from a little anxiety inducing to terrifying. Begin to make your way down the list as your confidence builds. Examples of this could be saying hello to a stranger, asking a question or making a comment in a meeting to presenting in a room full of people. In the moment If you find yourself in a social setting or situation that is making you feel anxious, there are some simple coping techniques you could use to combat in-the-moment anxiety. Use your breath and engage in some simple breathing exercises as this helps calm the parasympathetic nervous system and instantly makes you feel more relaxed. It also helps you concentrate on the present moment and takes you away from the anxious or fearful thoughts you may be having. A simple one to remember is the 5-5-5 breath.  Inhale for 5 seconds, hold for 5 and breathe out for 5. Another coping technique for anxiety is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method which activates your senses and brings you back to the present moment. Acknowledge 5 things you see Acknowledge 4 things you can touch Acknowledge 3 things you can hear Acknowledge 2 things you can smell Acknowledge 1 thing you can taste If you feel as if your anxiety is getting the best of you and interfering with your quality of life, the Thrive Wellbeing Hub is here for you. We have a range of supports available to you as a member or student of the Institute. Learn more about how Thrive can help: https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/thrive-wellbeing-hub/how-we-help

Evan O’Donnell, Assurance Associate at PwC, Co-Chairperson of CASSC and Vice-Chairperson of CASSI, has taken full advantage of the student societies, and thinks you should, too I am in the third year of my training contract with PwC, and I can honestly say I have enjoyed my Chartered Accountancy journey so far. Don’t get me wrong, the immense exam material, gruelling exams, busy season hours and never-ending deadlines can take time to get used to, but like anything in life, balance is key.  CASSI networking Throughout my three years, I have been involved in Chartered Accountants Ireland student societies.  Joining a regional society committee or Chartered Accountants Student Society of Ireland (CASSI)committee opens the door to a world of opportunities. Not only is it advantageous from a CV and career point of view, but the network of similar colleagues on similar life paths also creates lifelong bonds.  The fun, banter and laughs I’ve shared with my fellow students and colleagues over the past three years have made the route to becoming a Chartered Accountant an enjoyable one.  More than a bean counter I have spent three years on Chartered Accountants Students Society Cork (CASSC), serving as the Education Officer, Vice-Chairperson and Co-Chairperson, and enjoying every minute of it.  Through organising academic and social events for my region, I have learned how to be an event planner, a traffic warden, a bouncer and, most importantly, an effective communicator!  Who says the role of an accountant is solely bound to calculators?  Exam camaraderie I have been very fortunate that there are more than 30 other graduates in my intake at PwC Cork, which has certainly aided the exam process.  Having a large network of like-minded individuals who are going through the same challenges as myself, such as meeting audit deadlines, completing the CA Diary and sitting the Chartered Accountancy exams, has proved to be incredibly beneficial.  My advice to any current student who is debating whether to join a regional or national student society would be to go for it! The worst that can happen is that they’ll have buckets of fun with fellow students! 

In Irish news this week, the Institute has responded to the public consultation on the Research and Development tax credit and Revenue has announced an extension to the 2025 Residential Zoned Land Tax filing deadline. In UK news, tomorrow is the deadline for issuing a P60 for the 2024/25 tax year and in this week’s miscellaneous updates, MPs are calling on the Government to delay its planned reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief. In International news, the OECD has published updated transfer pricing profiles. Ireland 1. Read the response by the Institute, under the auspices of CCAB-I, to the public consultation on the Research and Development tax credit and on options to support innovation. 2. Revenue issued a press release confirming an extension to the deadline for filing the 2025 Residential Zoned Land Tax returns. UK 3. Tomorrow is the date by which all employees should receive a P60 for the 2024/25 tax year. 4. This week’s miscellaneous updates features a wide range of issues, including news that a committee of cross-party MPs is calling for the Government to delay its proposed curtailments of agricultural property relief and business property relief, which are due to take effect from 6 April 2026. International 5. Read about the updated transfer pricing country profiles 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.

In this week’s miscellaneous updates: The controversy and disquiet over the Government’s plans to restrict the availability of 100 percent agricultural property relief (APR)/business property relief (BPR) for inheritance tax (IHT) continues to rumble on, The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report on collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals, HMRC has been busy issuing further communications regarding the UK’s Pillar Two rules, HMRC is seeking feedback on the Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) notification and certificate submission process, A new online interactive tool has been launched to help businesses and individuals understand HMRC compliance checks, Read an article from KPMG summarising the tax implications of the UK’s recent trade deals with India and the US, and HMRC has confirmed that Measuring Tax Gaps 2025, which will provide an estimated tax gap for 2023/24, will be published next month on 19 June. The latest schedule of HMRC Talking Points live and recorded webinars for tax agents is also 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. Government Committee of MPs says delay IHT reforms  A report by the cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee is calling for the Government to delay announcing its final APR and BPR reforms until October 2026, to come into effect in April 2027, saying a pause in the implementation of the reforms “would allow for better formulation of tax policy and provide the Government with an opportunity to convey a positive long-term vision for farming.” It would also protect vulnerable farmers who would have “more time to seek appropriate professional advice”.  In April, the Institute’s NI Tax Committee wrote to the Government on the same issue and also told the Government that the reforms need to be postponed in order to consult wider and reframe this policy change in a way that it is more effectively targeted. If reform is not an option, a range of potential mitigations were suggested in the letter which would curtail the impact.   The Institute also responded in April to the related consultation ‘Reforms to Inheritance Tax agricultural property relief and business property relief: application in relation to trusts.’  National Audit Office report on collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals  The NAO has published its report on collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals which examines the extent to which HMRC is well placed to support wealthy individuals to pay the right tax and intervene in good time if people get things wrong.   The report concludes that although wealthy people contribute significant amounts of tax revenue to the Exchequer, the complexity of their affairs makes it more difficult to get their taxes right and presents more opportunities to deliberately not pay enough.   In response to this concern, HMRC now publishes annual estimates of the tax gap for wealthy individuals, which it estimates to have been stable and low. According to the NAO, “HMRC deserves credit for increasing the amount of compliance yield. Its move towards more upstream casework has been an important innovation and has resulted in improved returns.” However, the scale of the increase in compliance yield from the wealthy raises questions about whether underlying levels of wealthy non-compliance are higher than HMRC previously thought.  “There is too much uncertainty around the tax gap estimate for this group, notably for offshore wealth, to be confident that non-compliance is not far higher than HMRC has detected. HMRC is working to improve its estimate of the wealthy tax gap.”  Pillar Two letters  HMRC recently wrote on Pillar Two to businesses who do not have a Customer Compliance Manager (CCM). The letter contains information on Pillar Two registration and reporting requirements, OECD standardisation, and updated HMRC guidance.  SAO notification and certification – feedback wanted  HMRC is seeking feedback on its SAO notification and certificate submission process as it working on a project to build a new digital service for this via a short survey. According to HMRC, responses to the survey are confidential and will only be used for internal HMRC research purposes. 

The latest UK tax tidbits features recent HMRC bulletins and newsletters in several areas. Employment related securities bulletin 60 (April 2025), Send an Employer Payment Summary using Basic PAYE Tools, Responsibilities for employment businesses working with umbrella companies, Working through an umbrella company, Preparing for the Multinational Top-up Tax and the Domestic Top-up Tax, Multinational Top-up Tax and Domestic Top-up Tax, Our governance, HMRC email updates, videos and webinars for Self Assessment, Compliance checks: Automatic Exchange of Information obligations — CC/FS46, Check if a business is registered for money laundering supervision, Insolvency practitioner bulletin 5 (2025): excise and insolvency, HMRC email updates, videos and webinars for tax agents and advisers, HMRC email updates, videos and webinars for the Construction Industry Scheme, Factsheet: Carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), Apply for healthcare cover in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland (CA8454), Customs civil penalties, Check the status of tax policy consultations, Inheritance Tax: domicile outside the United Kingdom (IHT401), Pensions schemes newsletter 169 — April 2025, Help to avoid errors in claims for plant and machinery allowances — GfC5, List of community amateur sports clubs (CASC) registered with HMRC, HMRC email updates, videos and webinars if you’re self-employed, Register with HMRC for an agent services account, Residence, domicile and the remittance basis: RDR1, Changes in your annual allowance following the public service pensions remedy, Recognised stock exchanges, Changes to lifetime allowance charges following the public service pensions remedy, Check how your lifetime allowance is affected by the public service pensions remedy, How voluntary contributions are affected by the public service pensions remedy, Find payroll software that is recognised by HMRC, Complaint Handling Guidance, and Detailed tax guidance for charities.  

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. The latest Brexit and Beyond newsletter received last week from the Northern Ireland Assembly EU Affairs team contains a useful summary of the key takeaways from the new partnership agreement announced during the UK and EU summit in London. The newsletter will be published here in due course. As part of this, the UK and EU have “agreed to work towards a deal that could significantly reduce checks on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland”. The Northern Ireland Office has also issued a press release reacting to the new partnership agreement and recent trade deals.  Miscellaneous guidance updates and publications  Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Procedure Code to Additional Procedure Code correlation matrix, Authorisation type codes for Data Element 3/39 of the Customs Declaration Service, Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: terms and conditions, Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM): Category of goods guidance, Additional Information (AI) Statement Codes for Data Element 2/2 of the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Navigate the Customs Declaration Service Declaration Instructions, Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Declaration Category Data Sets, Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Declaration Category Data Sets, Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Customs Simplified Procedures Guidance, Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: Procedure Codes, and Simplified Process for Internal Market Movements (SPIMM) and UK Carrier (UKC) Scheme: CDS Declaration and Customs Clearance Request Instructions. 

Whether employees are working from home or away, find out how to deal with reimbursed expense payments and benefits paid by attending a HMRC webinar in the coming weeks. Phones, internet and homeworking  For information about homeworking expenses, register for HMRC’s webinar, which provides an overview of the tax and national insurance treatment when an employer: provides a mobile phone or reimburses for business use of a personal mobile phone, provides broadband in an employee’s home, or pays towards it, and provides homeworking expenses to its employees. Travel Register for HMRC’s webinar to find out about the tax treatment of:  travel and subsistence payments to employees, mileage payments for employees using their own vehicle, benchmark and bespoke scale rates, and keeping records and sending reports to HMRC. For information about 'PAYE Settlement Agreements (PSAs)' choose from HMRC’s playlist of short videos available on HMRC’s YouTube channel. 

As we reminded readers last week, the deadline for employers to provide employees with their P60 for 2024/25, either on paper or electronically, is Saturday 31 May 2025. The P60 summarises the employee’s total pay and deductions for the year. By that date, employers must give a P60 to all employees on payroll who were working for them on the last day of the tax year (5 April 2025). If an employer is exempt from filing payroll online, copies of P60s can be ordered from HMRC.    

The OECD has published updated transfer pricing country profiles which reflect the current transfer pricing law and practice of 11 jurisdictions including, for the first time, profiles of Azerbaijan and Pakistan. The publication includes new sections addressing hard-to-value intangibles and the simplified approach for baseline marketing and distribution activities.

On 24 June, the European Commission will host a half-day hybrid event to mark the publication of the 2025 Annual Report on Taxation. This year’s theme, “Fair and effective taxation: Strengthening compliance and progressivity”, will consider how tax policy can promote fairness, strengthen compliance, and support sustainable public finances.

Revenue has updated its  guidance to Charities and sports bodies on making an online application for a tax exemption. The guidance now reflects changes to the Charitable Donations Scheme whereby, with effect from 1 January 2025, the two-year waiting period for eligibility for the scheme no longer applies.