The Institute, under the auspices of the CCAB-I, made representations on behalf of members at last week’s meeting of Main TALC. Among the issues discussed, Revenue provided an update on its position regarding the Enhanced Reporting Requirements for employers (ERR) and the tax treatment of general medical services (GMS) income of general practitioners (GPs). In addition, Revenue updated the group on issues raised at the other TALC subcommittees including updates to the wording of the VAT56A accountants’ letters, and the impact of the General Block Exemption Regulations on the Employment Incentive Investment Scheme (EIIS).
In relation to ERR, CCAB-I and all practitioners represented at the meeting continued to voice their concerns with the implementation of these measures. One of the key difficulties is the requirement to report ‘on-or-before’ the making of in-scope payments. CCAB-I raised these concerns in a letter to the Minister for Finance and reiterated these at Main TALC last week. CCAB-I also noted the need for clear guidance to be issued as soon as possible to help employers implement ERR. Revenue noted that a Tax and Duty Manual will issue by the end of October. The introduction of ERR was also contrasted with the implementation of PMOD in recent years One of the key differences being it remains unclear to many businesses just what software systems they will need to introduce to satisfy their obligations. Revenue urged employers to contact their software providers in that regard.
On the matter of the proposed changes to the tax treatment of GMS income of GPs which we have covered in recent editions of Tax News, CCAB-I expressed concerns over the potential commercial impact of the change in practice and we will be writing to Revenue later this week. Revenue has also committed to publishing a Tax and Duty Manual on the changes as soon as possible.
The VAT56A issue arose from a recent meeting of the TALC Indirect Taxes sub-committee and Revenue has since agreed to meet with practitioners later this week to close out the matter. CCAB-I provided new wording to take account of updates to certain aspects of the professional accountancy framework. We will share the outcome of this meeting in next week’s Tax News.
Lastly, in relation to the Employment Investment Incentive Scheme and the impact of the revised GBER (which we updated readers in last week’s Tax News), Revenue committed to engaging with practitioners to consider the impact of the recent GBER updates.