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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.

28 March 2022 - This roundup sets out the most important changes to HMRC manuals over the past week as curated by our editors.

Spotlight 59 is an update to Spotlight 28 on the tax avoidance schemes used by employers to provide tax free or tax reduced rewards to their employees, like the Growth Securities Ownership Plan (GSOP).

These Regulations increase import duty on Russian and Belarusian goods in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

HMRC has updated its plastic packaging tax (PPT) guidance to expand the sections on cellulose-based material and recovered materials.

These two sets of Regulations revoke provisions which enabled individuals who were absent from work for reasons relating to coronavirus to qualify for statutory sick pay and preserve the legal effect of a ‘waiting days’ waiver which otherwise would have expired.

This Order reduces the excise duty on petrol, diesel and other oil products by 5p per litre for 12 months from 23 March 2022.

HMRC has updated its guidance on sales of second-hand cars in Northern Ireland, to add information about the new second-hand motor vehicle export refund scheme that the UK government intends to introduce in October 2022.

Regulations have been laid to reverse legislation that was introduced in 2019, which narrowed the scope of the previous VAT relief for energy-saving materials (ESMs), and to introduce a temporary zero rate of VAT for the installation of ESMs from 1 April 2022-31 March 2027 in England, Wales and Scotland.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has responded to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement of 23 March 2022, welcoming the announcement to align income tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) thresholds. However, the CIOT have commented that the alignment and the separate announcement to reduce the basic rate of income tax suggest conflicting approaches to the two taxes. It was also stated that the income tax and NICs thresholds will not be equalised in 2022/23 and that the prospect of further income tax divergence between Scotland and the rest of the UK has increased.

HMRC’s Stakeholder Digest (23 March 2022) provides a round-up of the latest news and updates including information on the Spring Statement, introduction of Plastic Packaging Tax and closure of the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (SSP).

The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) has responded to HMRC’s call for evidence on Income Tax Self-Assessment registration for the self-employed and landlords.

HMRC has updated its guidance in Section 6.6 with information about the nursing agencies’ concession, that was confirmed recently by the Court of Appeal.

The Chancellor delivered his Spring Statement on 23 March 2022, detailing several new tax announcements.

The OECD has published a public consultation document concerning a new global tax transparency framework to provide for the reporting and exchange of information with respect to crypto-assets, as well as proposed amendments to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the automatic exchange of financial account information between countries.

The Northern Ireland Finance Minister has met with the Fiscal Commission, established last March to examine the case for additional taxation powers, to discuss their upcoming report on the potential to increase fiscal powers.

HMRC has updated a number of guidance documents on Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT).

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published an online survey and call for evidence seeking views on simplifying the taxation of property income.

The Supreme Court has published its judgment in Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (Appellant) v NCL Investments Ltd and another (Respondent). The Supreme Court unanimously dismisses the appeal. The judgment is given by Lord Hamblen and Lady Rose, with whom Lord Reed, Lord Briggs and Lord Sales agree.

HMRC has published Employment Related Securities Bulletin 41 for March 2022.