The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is suggesting the introduction of a PAYE option for online platform workers, which would see operators such as Deliveroo or Uber deducting tax from their earnings and thereby taking responsibility for fulfilling the tax obligations of their workers

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is to compensate thousands of military personnel based in Scotland against being left out of pocket because of differences between the Scottish tax regime and that used elsewhere in the UK, with top-up payments to be made each year

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is warning that the Prime Minister’s recent pledge to increase spending on the NHS is likely to put significant pressure on public finances, placing public sector net debt on an ‘unsustainable upward trajectory’, unless the government introduces future tax rises or spending cuts

HMRC has succumbed to pressure from practitioners and estate administrators to provide a timeline for when replies to submitted inheritance tax accounts IHT400 will be received. Rebecca Goldring, manager at Blick Rothenberg explains 

The government should do more to secure the financial position of unpaid carers, and tackle the difficulties caused by the interactions between carer’s allowance, the minimum wage and tax credits, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) is warning

HMRC is offering three million taxpayers the opportunity to ask Alexa, Amazon’s virtual home assistant, for help in renewing their tax credits by the 31 July deadline

Life insurance premiums paid by employers to provide death benefits for their workers will be tax-exempt regardless of the beneficiary of those benefits, under proposed HMRC legislation

HMRC plans to overhaul the penalties for late payments by businesses and individuals for corporation tax, income tax and self assessment, using a brand new points-based system

The government will go ahead with plans to abolish receipt checking for benchmark scale rates and changes to overseas scale rates, to simplify expenses related to travel

The government is going ahead with rules to support charities with a Gift Aid measure to simplify the donor benefits rules, due to come into force from April 2019, pending approval of draft Finance Bill 2018-19 

The government is clamping down on abuse of rent-a-room relief with new rules on shared occupancy to ensure the tax relief is used for lodgers, not as a boost for gig economy renters, from April 2019

The government has issued draft Finance Bill 2018-19, including draft legislation for at least 33 significant measures affecting employment tax, simplification of Gift Aid, company car tax liability, Making Tax Digital penalty regime and new rules for tax under IFRS 16 Leases, reports Sara White

HMRC has updated its guidance for tax agents and advisers on registering a client’s trust online, to show the types of trust which must be registered and the deadlines for doing so

Announcing unexpected tax changes on Budget day without prior consultation will always be open to public opposition, as has been seen in the past with the majority of unwelcome taxes being abolished just days later, explains George Bull, senior tax partner at RSM

HMRC has formed an alliance with tax enforcement bodies in four countries to share intelligence and expertise in the battle against international tax crime