A rigid £50 cap on the trivial benefits exemption can catch out lucky staff who receive generous gifts from employers. Yvette Nunn CTA ATT MAAT, director of Berkeley Associates, warns of potential tax pitfalls if you receive a lavish Christmas hamper or a wedge of gift vouchers

Dating back to the 1990s, the argument over Robert Gaines-Cooper’s domicile status is back in court, reminding high net worth individuals about the importance of keeping up to date with changes in tax avoidance legislation, warns international tax barrister Leon Fernando Del Canto

Attempts to reform tax reporting for the self employed and landlords need to be carefully thought through to avoid creating more complexity and red tape. Yvette Nunn CTA ATT MAAT, director of Berkeley Associates, assesses the latest OTS report

Entrepreneurs’ relief (ER) should be fully available for properly structured multiple completion share buybacks, but until HMRC issues definitive guidance, advisers should look at alternatives, says Peter Rayney FCA, CTA (Fellow), TEP

The corporate offence of failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion under the Criminal Finances Act 2017 has not been as effective as HMRC originally expected. David Sleight, criminal litigation partner at Kingsley Napley, asks why there have been so few HMRC investigations two years on

The Morse review of the loan charge needs to resolve the problem of disguised remuneration loan schemes effectively, particularly for those facing lower tax bills who entered the shemes without grasping the full tax implications, warns Bill Dodwell CTA (Fellow), head of the Office of Tax Simplification

Yvette Nunn examines the tax risks facing accidental landlords and second home owners when new tax rules on residential property sales come into force from April 2020

Yvette Nunn CTA asks whether the government’s efforts to change behaviour by putting taxes on everything from plastic bags to diesel vehicles, not to mention the apprenticeship levy on businesses, are an effective way of altering taxpayers’ mindsets

Nimesh Patel, senior tax manager at Grunberg & Co, looks at recent proposals from the Office of Tax Simplification to see whether inheritance tax (IHT) really is set to become less complex and why there would be winners and losers from any reform plan to tax and estate planning

As tax on company cars escalates, Yvette Nunn asks whether there will be a revival of interest in the benefit when the government removes company car tax from lower emission vehicles in 2020

Bill Dodwell CTA (Fellow), head of the Office of Tax Simplification, examines the complexities of reforming council tax where the regressive nature of the tax bands does not reflect property valuations

Calls to remove the need for businesses to complete two tax returns in their first year, put forward by the Office of Tax Simplification, could be implemented overnight. Yvette Nunn, director of Berkeley Associates, sets out a simple change to Companies House’s default position

Relying on software exclusively for Making Tax Digital for VAT is fraught with potential problems, with any errors in calculation likely to create problems for taxpayers who do not know the complexities of tax law. Yvette Nunn, director of Berkeley Associates recommends a spreadsheet backup to avoid penalties down the line

The personal allowance costs the government £195bn a year in tax relief, while inheritance tax exemptions amount to £17bn a year, just some of the numerous reliefs adding to the complexity of the tax system but necessary to determine tax liability. Bill Dodwell, head of the Office for Tax Simplification (OTS), analyses the annual costs to the Exchequer

In this month’s VAT roundup of significant cases, Graham Elliott CTA (Fellow), VAT specialist at City & Cambridge Consultancy, considers the judgments on the timing of a tax point in Budimex, non-owners’ import obligations, and when prescription drugs can, and cannot, be zero rated following Pearl Chemist decision