Key messages and discussion points from recent meetings with HMRC and reminders about the tax treatment of Covid-19 supports, in addition to the latest news on Finance Bill 2022 all feature in this month’s UK tax developments.

Chartered Accountants Ireland regularly engages with HMRC on matters of interest for our members. So far in 2021, 13 submissions and responses have been made to the UK government and related bodies in response to various consultations and matters of concern to our members which you can view on our website. In September 2021 it was announced that the Institute’s recommendations to delay both basis period reform and Making Tax Digital for income tax one year were being implemented. In 2021, the focus of forum meetings has been on the various COVID-19 supports, post EU exit, HMRC service levels and HMRC’s approach to collection of debt to name but a few. Set out below are key messages from recent meetings.

30 day reporting now extended to 60 days

In recent months, the Institute has been in discussions with HMRC in respect of the issues our members have been experiencing with the 30 days reporting system and rules for CGT on disposals of residential properties. As a result of this lobbying, the Autumn Budget announced that from 27 October 2021, the deadline to report is now 60 days. HMRC is also working with the Professional Bodies to develop updated and more detailed guidance in this area.

Representative Body Steering Group (“RBSG”)

This is the highest level forum meeting of the Professional Bodies with meetings taking place approximately five times annually. In recent meetings, HMRC performance issues have been a standing item on the agenda. At the most recent meeting in October, HMRC shared an update on actions it is taking to raise performance to pre-pandemic levels which includes looking at providing more information by working on a dashboard to include changes in demand and volumes in different areas. Ongoing performance issues were also discussed.

HMRC has also set up a new intermediaries directorate which “aims to strengthen and bring focus to HMRC’s work on and with intermediaries. Director recruitment is in progress, with a start date expected to be in early 2022.”

There are three areas of focus as HMRC begins creating the directorate:

1. “Continuing the work already done by HMRC on agents, including on agent standards, and on stakeholder engagement. These teams will transfer into the directorate once the director takes up post;
2. Identifying parts of the intermediary ecosystem HMRC colleagues are already working with currently, and how the directorate we can add value to those;
3. Developing a long-term, strategic approach to working with the broader intermediary ecosystem, across standards and services.”

HMRC’s first step is to get the definition of intermediaries right, and the way HMRC breaks that down into groups. HMRC has committed to involving the members of this forum when developing the way forward.

During this part of the meeting the Institute suggested that as part of this directorate customs agents should be an area of potential initial focus. A recent survey of our members showed that only 10 percent felt that they would be able to access customs intermediaries when the Trader Support Service comes to an end in December 2022, which is a significant concern. The Institute is also in discussions with HMRC about the need to make the Trader Support Service permanent both as part of the RBSG meetings and more regular meetings with HMRC on EU exit matters.

In the context of debt collection we also discussed the need to establish a dedicated account manager for certain insolvency related queries. This was one of the recommendations in the Institute’s Next Financial Year position 2021 paper which was shared with HMRC on its launch and which we are pleased to say has now been implemented in respect of customs queries.

At the last meeting, the Institute raised the forthcoming 2020/21 self-assessment filing deadline and noted that some of our members were still experiencing issues due to COVID-19. In addition, the process for late filing by tax agents in Ireland was also highlighted and shared with HMRC. It was agreed that this will be revisited again by the end of 2021.

We also discussed long delays being experienced by some taxpayers in receiving repayments of overpaid self-assessment tax in particular. HMRC has advised us that increased fraud checks are broadly responsible for including additional identity verification checks being conducted. In recent weeks HMRC advises that the Department has increased resources in this area, and it is hopeful that service levels should begin to see improvement by the end of November with the aim of actioning post related to these repayments within 30 calendar days of receipt.

Virtual Communications Group (“VCG”)

This group meets monthly. At recent meetings the Institute discussed the end of the CJRS and SEISS. HMRC promised to share an update in the coming months on its approach to compliance now that the schemes have ended which we will then share with members.

Making Tax Digital is also discussed regularly, and we share the monthly VCG digital update and agent forum update with members in Tax News. HMRC are setting up an MTD for ITSA forum which will meet quarterly.

Wealthy External Stakeholder Forum

Forum meetings are attended by Alan Gourley, Chair of the NI Tax Committee. A recent briefing was issued by the forum in relation to the Enterprise Investment Scheme. Another briefing issued on letters being issued to taxpayers who received a notice to file for the tax year ending 5 April 2019 but are yet to submit a return. A further briefing has also been issued on nudge letters for potential pay and tax/benefit in kind discrepancies.

Powers and Safeguards Evaluation Forum

At the most recent forum meeting, reasonable excuse guidance was discussed. As a reminder the newly published reasonable excuse guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/compliance-handbook/ch160000.

Guidance Strategy Forum

This forum brings together external stakeholders to:

• inform and influence the direction of HMRC’s guidance strategy;
• test thinking on guidance direction and plans;
• increase understanding of different users’ needs; and
• help gauge the effectiveness of solutions put in place.

The introduction of this forum also supports the Office of Tax Simplification recommendation that HMRC should introduce an ‘advice and guidance panel’. The minutes of the latest forum meeting are available through GOV.UK.