With less than 80 days to the rollout of Making Tax Digital for VAT, a number of professional institutes, inlcuding AAT, ACCA, ATT, CIOT and STEP, have released initial engagement letters defining client relationships under the new digital reporting framework

HMRC has lost a case involving the VAT status of a ‘raw chocolate brownie’ containing no egg, dairy or gluten but which a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) has ruled is a cake and not a chocolate bar, and should therefore be zero-rated, opening the way for manufacturer Pulsin’ to reclaim £300,000 in tax

When HMRC over-reaches its powers, the courts do take action as happened in the recent long-running BPP [2018] TC 06632 case subject to an unless order barring the tax authority from tribunal proceedings. Stan Dencher, specialist tax writer at Croner-i, examines the case

In our regular VAT Q&A series, Croner Taxwise VAT specialist Hilary Budd explains the ins and outs of the payments on account (POA) regime for a business straddling the POA threshold and how to leave the scheme

VAT receipts represent an increasing percentage of HMRC’s total tax take, suggesting the tax burden is increasingly being shifted to consumers, and increasing the risks to the tax base post-Brexit, according to research by UHY Hacker Young

HMRC has collected over £200m in unpaid VAT from overseas sellers using online marketplaces in the past two years, since the introduction of a new regime to tackle tax avoidance which enables it to flag up those who are not registered for VAT

The pilot programme for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT has been extended by HMRC to all businesses that meet the requirements, giving those affected time to test their systems and train staff ahead of the April deadline

A dispute between investment management firm BlackRock and HMRC over VAT on financial services has seen the case referred to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) after the Upper Tribunal failed to reach a verdict, reports James Bunney

Kim Hau, senior proposition manager for Onesource Indirect Tax, explains the benefits of different Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT software solutions and why companies should embrace a comprehensive approach rather than a quick fix

Vivienne Scott, senior VAT consultant at Croner Taxwise, discusses whether design and build contracts allow architects to apply a zero rate VAT to the professional services they provide to contractors

With the mandatory deadline to digitally report VAT under HMRC’s Making Tax Digital racing down upon us, Bill Dodwell, senior policy adviser at OTS, says this will not mean an immediate end to spreadsheet reporting as HMRC has accepted that some VAT calculations are just too complicated to comply immediately and more work needs to be done

Graham Elliott CTA (Fellow), director at City and Cambridge Consultancy, examines a selection of VAT cases from VAT and hire purchase on secondary sale of cars in VW Financial Services, input VAT evidence in XipVit and retail vouchers under scrutiny

A German football agency has had its appeal upheld by the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) after disputing whether the VAT liability of the services it provided to clubs hinged on the time of supply or when they were completed

With close to 100 days before Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT becomes compulsory, HMRC has come under fire for its failure to publish detailed guidance on when and how to claim exemptions from the new rules, with the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) warning this risks unfairly increasing the burdens on some individuals

ACCA is warning of future risks to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because of the potential for a no deal Brexit to clash with the introduction of HMRC’s new Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT regime, and says the government must provide more detailed guidance