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29 March 2021 - This roundup sets out the most important changes to HMRC manuals over the past week as curated by our editors.

HM Treasury has concluded technical discussions on the text of the MoU, which was agreed in a Joint Declaration on Financial Services Regulatory Cooperation alongside the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

In the ever-fast-moving world of tax announcements and developments, this news pulls together some of the key changes announced this week. Our commentary will be updated in due course to reflect these latest developments.

The Regulations amend the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations, SI 2017/692 to replace references to the European Commission’s list of high-risk third countries with a UK list of high-risk third countries.

HMRC has written letters to VAT-registered businesses in Great Britain trading with the EU, highlighting the new rules and actions to take for importing goods from, or exporting goods to, the EU.

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has published profiles of 30 countries applying Arbitration under the multilateral BEPS Convention.

HMRC has updated its Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) guidance to include dates for when employers can make a claim, information about employees doing training, and details of when their claim will be publicly available.

These Regulations extend a number of temporary insolvency measures introduced by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 beyond their current expiration dates.

HMRC has updated VAT Notice 735 to reflect the changes to the applicability of the domestic reverse charge on construction services and Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) and Emission Reduction Units (ERUs).

These Regulations make a series of technical amendments to legislation made under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 (TCTA), which provided for the UK’s Customs, VAT and Excise regimes to be in place after the end of the Implementation Period following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU.

These Regulations make amendments to two statutory instruments: the Customs Tariff (Preferential Trade Arrangements) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1457) and the Customs (Tariff Quotas) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1432) to implement preferential customs import duty rates agreed under further free trade arrangements entered into between Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom and the governments of other countries or territories.

This brief outlines the accelerated process for partially exempt businesses to request temporary alterations to their partial exemption method in light of changes to their business practices because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The European Scrutiny Committee (ESC) has published its 40th report on recent draft EU legislation and policy documents deposited in Parliament by the government. The ESC gauges the legal and political importance of each legislative proposal, document or policy and, where appropriate, inquires further on its implications and/or recommends it for debate in Parliament. Subjects identified as legally and/or politically important in this instance include the European Commission's cybersecurity strategy and a proposal for a revised Network and Information Systems Directive, the draft data adequacy decisions for the UK proposed by the European Commission, market access for goods under the Northern Ireland Protocol, and the public country-by-country tax reporting of multinationals in the EU.

The Practice Directions on Contingency Arrangements and Panel Composition in the FTT and the UT have both been extended until 18 September 2021 and the FTT Practice Statement on Categorisation of tax cases has been extended to 30 June 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

HMRC has updated its import, export and customs guidance to reflect the post Brexit regime.

This Order amends the VAT reverse charge legislation (SI 2010/2239) introduced in 2010 to prevent missing trader fraud by requiring the recipient rather than the supplier of certain emissions allowances and other units to account for VAT.

HMRC has published draft guidance covering changes included in Finance Bill 2021 to strengthen the sanctions against those who promote or enable tax avoidance schemes.

HMRC has updated its guidance on the Conditional Exemption Tax incentive scheme to extend the date for the temporary changes made as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The temporary changes now apply until July 2021.

The UK's first 'Tax Day' held on 23 March saw the Treasury publish a number of consultations relating to long term changes in the Government’s tax policy, including the way that the tax system is administered, greater oversight of the work of tax advisers and transfer pricing. These consultations will likely influence a 10-year tax strategy. Our tax experts have produced a detailed summary of all the key announcements from the consultations.

HMRC has reminded self-assessment taxpayers that they have just over a week until 1 April 2021 to pay any outstanding tax liabilities in full or set up an online payment plan to prevent them being charged a 5% late payment penalty.