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These Regulations make provisions in consequence of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order, SI 2022/292 which provides for the annual up-rating of social security benefits.

These Regulations make amendments to the Child Benefit (General) Regulations, SI 2006/223 and the Tax Credits (Definition and Calculation of Income) Regulations, SI 2002/2006 to ensure that persons who left Ukraine in connection with the Russian invasion on 24 February 2022 are exempt from the requirement to have been living in the UK for at least three months before becoming entitled to Child Benefit. They will also ensure that payments under the Homes for Ukraine scheme are disregarded for the purposes of calculating entitlement to tax credits.

HMRC has published guidance on a range of administrative and technical issues affecting Plastic Packaging Tax.

The Order fulfils the statutory duty of the Secretary of State to review the rates of social security benefits and provides for the up-rating of certain benefits.

The OECD has published its fourth peer review report assessing the actions taken by jurisdictions to prevent tax treaty shopping and other forms of treaty abuse under Action 6 of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project.

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

Weekly roundup of HMRC post-Brexit import, export and customs guidance: 21 March 2022

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 announced that the interest rates for late payments will be revised following the Bank of England’s interest rate rise from 0.50% to 0.75%.

These Regulations increase the special rate of Class 2 NICs payable by share fishermen to £3.80 per week from 6 April 2022.

These Regulations extend the income tax exemption for employer-provided or reimbursed coronavirus tests for the 2022–23 tax year.

These Regulations extend the current NICs disregard for employer-provided or employer-reimbursed coronavirus tests for the tax year 2022–23.

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, will be delivering the Spring Statement on Wednesday 23 March 2022. The Lexis PSL Tax team will, as usual, be publishing analysis of any significant announcements in relation to business tax. This will be available on our site and in alerts by the following day.

The Government of Jersey has stated that all forms of tax cooperation with Russia are suspended with immediate effect. The Minister for External Relations and Financial Services, Senator Ian Gorst, stated that Jersey should not be providing the Russian government with information that can be used to increase its tax revenues. This suspension follows from a similar announcement from the UK government on Thursday 17 March 2022.

The UK government has announced that it is suspending the exchange and sharing of tax information with Russia and Belarus as part of its response to the invasion of Ukraine.

These Regulations temporarily modify the formulae used to calculate the NICs annual maxima, as a consequence of the 1.25 percentage point increase in NICs rates for the tax year 2022–23.

These regulations make provision in relation to the zero-rate of secondary National Insurance contributions (NICs) available to freeport employers and employers of armed forces veterans to ensure that an employment that is eligible for multiple rates of NICs, but to which HMRC has not assigned the relevant NICs category letters because of the small numbers involved, can still benefit from the relief.

These Regulations amend the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations, SI 2009/470 to maintain the Plan 2 student loan repayment threshold and the post-study interest thresholds at their current levels for 2022-23.

These Regulations make provision in relation to the zero-rate of secondary National Insurance contributions (NICs) available in freeport tax sites where employees’ time spent at the freeport site is limited due to a protected characteristic.

HMRC has published Agent Update issue 94 (March 2022) providing a round-up of recent developments for tax agents and advisers.