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These Regulations amend The Customs (Additional Duty) (Russia and Belarus) Regulations, SI 2022/376 to increase import duty on specified Russian and Belarusian goods in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

HMRC has updated Notice 700/56 to add a new section on set-off and preferential debts.

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.

HMRC has developed a new VAT Registration Service which will see all new taxpayers automatically signed up for Making Tax Digital for VAT from 1 August 2022.

HMRC’s Stakeholder Digest (20 July 2022) provides a round-up of recent news including Legislation Day and HMRC’s annual report and accounts for 2021–22.

The Treasury Committee has launched an inquiry examining the tax reliefs available to individuals and businesses, and whether the system of reliefs achieves benefits for the UK economy that justify their cost. The inquiry will follow HMRC’s definitions of structural and non-structural reliefs. The Committee seeks responses on whether the current suite of tax reliefs represent good value for money, how the various reliefs rank relative to each other based on cost effectiveness, the problems arising from tax reliefs for taxpayers, businesses or for the wider economy, and whether the tax reliefs are being used as intended. The Committee also invites respondents to outline potential reforms to the system of tax reliefs. Responses must be submitted by 19 September 2022.

The CIOT has responded to HMRC’s consultation on the inclusion of cryptoassets in the investment transactions list used for the purposes of the Investment Manager Exemption.

The CIOT urges HMRC to clarify its guidance to make sure companies are aware that SDLT documents will be deemed to be properly served where they are posted to addresses other than the company’s principal place of business.

In this GAAR panel opinion on a repayment of a participator loan through transactions involving group companies, the panel's opinion is that entering into, and carrying out, the tax arrangements was a reasonable course of action in relation to the relevant tax provisions. This is the first of the GAAR Advisory Panel’s opinions that favours the taxpayer.

HMRC has published pension schemes newsletter 141.

HMRC has updated its capital allowance structures and buildings toolkit.

The CIOT has shared an update setting out that HMRC will change the way it carries out VAT assessments for overseas online marketplace traders from September 2022. From September, HMRC will issue assessments to traders in cases where the information held by HMRC indicates that VAT returns are inaccurate, rather than asking for additional information from traders in the first instance. This change will be of interest to marketplace traders, and online marketplace hosts.

HM Treasury has published the Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB), along with feedback on its consultations on the Future Regulatory Framework (FRF) Review and FRF Review: central counterparties and central securities depositories and the first Mansion House speech by the new chancellor of the exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi. In his speech, Zahawi noted that the FSMB aims to tailor financial services regulation to UK markets and create a more competitive financial services sector in the UK post-Brexit. He also said it implements the FRF Review, including reforms to Solvency II and the prospectus regime and the Wholesale Capital Markets review. It also, amongst other things, enables the UK government to ‘safely adopt cryptoassets’ and introduces growth and competitiveness as formal ‘secondary’ objectives of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

HMRC has published Agent Update issue 98 (July 2022) providing a round-up of recent developments for tax agents and advisers.

HMRC and the Treasury have published a number of new consultations and responses, covering various subjects including the UK’s implementation of Pillar 2, the reporting rules for digital platforms, self-assessment notification of liability timings, and improving the way HMRC uses taxpayer data.

HMRC has now published a notice which specifies what information must be included in a return required under

Partial exemption special methods are often used in specific sectors and HMRC has worked with representative bodies to produce sector specific partial exemption frameworks. The frameworks are intended to facilitate the agreement of consistent, fair, and reasonable partial exemption special methods. Frameworks are regularly updated and on 19 July 2022 HMRC published an online edition of the framework for NHS bodies, the previous edition having been published as a PDF document.

The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) has published its response to HMRC’s consultation on its intention to expand the investment transactions list used by the investment manager exemption to provide tax certainty to UK investment managers seeking to include types of crypto-assets within their investors’ portfolios. Regarding the proposed definition of crypto-assets, STEP seeks clarity on non-fungible tokens; supports references to ‘similar technology’ to accommodate variations on traditional crypto-assets and, the inclusion of ‘interests in crypto-assets’.

The Office of Tax Simplification has published a report which analyses the impacts of tax complexity and recommends that the principle of simplification should be embedded in the tax policy making process.

On 20 July 2022, the Treasury published a raft of legislation in draft which will form the basis of Finance Bill 2023.