The president of CIOT, Ray McCann, has told the Treasury sub-committee that the government’s approach to tackling disguised remuneration was ‘worse than retrospective legislation’ in that it removed the legal protections provided to taxpayers

The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) has discussed the implementation of a digital services tax, with representatives disagreeing on how such a tax would work in practice and some countries calling for a delay until the OECD reaches a solution

Meg Wilson CTA, tax writer at Croner-i, looks at why HMRC’s existing policy on voluntary returns is being legislated for, including cases which have concluded that unsolicited tax returns are not valid, and what impact this change will have on UK taxpayers and tax advisors

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley has claimed that the high street is ‘already dead’ due to the impact of the internet on consumers, and that the only way to redress the balance would be to institute a 20% tax on online sales and massive cuts to business rates

Recent powers provided to HMRC undermine the rule of law and hinder taxpayers' access to justice, and the tax authority should be subject to greater oversight and its powers reviewed, as the balanced has been tipped ‘unfairly’ in its favour, according to a House of Lords report

The EU committee on economic and monetary affairs has voted in favour of a proposed amendment to the EU VAT directive, allowing member states struggling with fraud to temporarily change the way it is recovered

The First Tier Tribunal (FTT) has dismissed an appeal by businessman Arron Banks that HMRC had breached his human rights by assessing him liable to inheritance tax (IHT) for donations made to UKIP in the period following the 2010 election

Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced his annual Christmas gift to charity, by revealing that the VAT collected on sales of the X Factor winner’s charity song will be donated to children’s charities

A recommendation by a Lords committee that the government’s introduction of mandatory Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT should be delayed by at least one year is supported by the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), CIOT and the ICAEW

Appearing before the Treasury committee, senior HMRC figures including Jon Thompson admitted that building post-Brexit IT systems could take longer than two years, and defended HMRC’s approach to tackling disguised remuneration arrangements

The government’s 2017 sale of student loans at 48% of their face value to unnamed private investors has been fiercely criticised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), who have called it ‘a short-sighted approach which fails to convince’

A Lords committee has issued a scathing report on HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT program, due to come into full effect in April 2019, attacking HMRC’s unrealistic timeframe, lack of communication with businesses, and failure to improve following previous criticism

Divisions over the government’s Brexit agreement has caused Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to deliver a stinging blow by failing to back the government on amendments to the Finance Bill proposed by opposition parties

The government has been forced into a U-turn over the planned timetable for reducing the stakes on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which will now be introduced in April 2019 following public and political outcry and a ministerial resignation

Lord Forsyth has written to the Chancellor on the subject of the changes to offshore time limits, expressing misgivings about the lack of consultation at early stages and the impact it will have on honest taxpayers