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HMRC has published guidance on a new loan scheme to support access to finance for UK business as they grow and recover from the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The government launched a review of Research and Development (R&D) tax reliefs at Budget 2021 and a wide-ranging consultation seeks the views of stakeholders on the current reliefs.

HMRC has published a new policy paper to seek views of organisations and individuals on how the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme is operating and whether it should be expanded.

These Regulations provide for an exemption from income tax on income earned in the UK for certain non-resident individuals in connection with football matches held in the UK as part of the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament now taking place in 2021.

The Welsh Government has published its latest Tax Policy Report that summarises the progress made against the Tax Policy Work Plan which was published in September 2020 by Welsh Minister for Finance and Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans MS.

HMRC has updated its guidance with information on when and how to report a cross-border arrangement to HMRC.

HMRC has updated its guidance on duty deferment payments in Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (NI) to reflect the end of the Brexit transition period and to confirm that businesses can now cancel or amend their duty deferment account online. While the Brexit transition/implementation period ended at 11 pm on 31 December 2020 (IP completion day), the government continues to issue new and updated Brexit webpages and guidance documents on the associated legal and practical changes. Further guidance may continue to be issued post-IP completion day, so stakeholders are advised to monitor these pages for updates.

HMRC has updated its guidance on customs guarantees to reflect the end of the Brexit transition period. While the Brexit transition/implementation period ended at 11 pm on 31 December 2020 (IP completion day), the government continues to issue new and updated Brexit webpages and guidance documents on the associated legal and practical changes. Further guidance may continue to be issued post-IP completion day, so stakeholders are advised to monitor these pages for updates.

HMRC has updated its guidance on self assessment payments to show how taxpayers can set up a Time to Pay arrangement online for amounts up to £30,000 up to 60 days after 31 January 2021.

HMRC has updated its guidance on simplified declarations for exports procedure and entry in the declarant’s records.

HMRC has updated its guidance for banks and building societies that submit taxpayers’ interest returns, including publishing a new bulletin and refreshed guidance notes for the returns.

HMRC has updated its guidance in the section on paying VAT or claiming VAT refunds to explain that businesses which use someone to import goods on their behalf, or use a supplier who arranges such imports, must tell them how they want to account for import VAT on their imports.

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 updated its guidance on sending goods to the EU through roll on roll off ports or the Channel Tunnel.

The Council of the European Union has formally requested the European Parliament’s consent to its decision on the conclusion of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), and associated agreements reached between the EU and UK at the end of the Brexit transition period. The European Parliament’s consent will pave the way for the Council’s adoption of the decision on the final conclusion of the agreements, marking the last steps in the EU’s ratification of the agreements and allowing their full entry into force. In the meantime, following its adoption, the TCA Partnership Council’s decision extending provisional application of the TCA until 30 April 2021 entered into force on 26 February 2021. The decision has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has published its comments in relation to the House of Commons Treasury Committee’s Inquiry on ‘Tax After Coronavirus’.

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

HMRC has updated its guidance with information to explain how to complete a VAT return if postponed import VAT statements cannot be downloaded.

The OECD secretary-general has published his report to the February 2021 meeting of G20 leaders in Italy, covering international tax developments including the digital economy, response to COVID-19, the activities and achievements of the Global Forum on Transparency, and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has issued a new report in which it calls on countries to increase their efforts to better deter, detect and disrupt the activities of professionals who enable tax evasion and other financial crimes. The report, titled Ending the Shell Game: Cracking down on the Professionals who enable Tax and White Collar Crimes, explores the different strategies that countries can take against those professional service providers which play a large part in the planning and pursuit of criminal activity, referred to in the report as ‘professional enablers’. The OECD noted that ‘the majority of professional service providers are law-abiding, and play an important role in assisting businesses and individuals understand and comply with the law’. However, it is hoped that this new report will assist countries in dealing with ‘the small subset that use their specialised skills and knowledge to enable clients to defraud the government and evade their tax obligations’. The report will be presented at the virtual OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum on 24 March 2021 at 4.45 pm.