HMRC Foreign Income Toolkit

HMRC has published a new toolkit to assist agents declaring foreign income on clients’ self assessment tax returns for individuals. Broadly, foreign income such as rental income from a foreign property or foreign investment income is declared on the SA106 pages of the self assessment tax return. The toolkit covers common errors and areas of risk that HMRC has encountered.

CGT 60-day paper returns

The paper version of the CGT 60-day return has been updated by HMRC, following feedback from ICAEW and other professional bodies. The paper form now includes sections to enter the agent’s details and repayment details, as well as notes on how to fill out the return.

A CGT 60-day return needs to be filed when a UK property disposal results in a taxable gain for a UK resident taxpayer. Non-UK residents must submit a return, whether or not there is a gain on disposal. The return must be filed within 60 days of completion and is normally filed online. However, in certain circumstances taxpayers (or agents) can request a paper return from HMRC. Further details on the return process can be found in ICAEW TAXguide 15/20.

Updates to the HMRC app

The HMRC app for individual taxpayers now includes a function to help taxpayers share their self assessment unique taxpayer reference (UTR) more easily. The new function allows the taxpayer to copy and paste their UTR.

Self assessment tax returns for deceased individuals

Personal representatives and executors are not able to submit tax returns online for the tax years leading up to an individual’s death. HMRC has released guidance confirming that paper returns should be filed for tax years prior to the year of death. However, agents are able to file online returns for the tax year of death, provided that the tax year in question has ended.

HMRC does not issue repayments for deceased individuals automatically. Agents, executors or personal representatives requesting repayments must contact the bereavement helpline.

Trust Registration Service webinar

As part of its Agent Talking Points series, HMRC is running a webinar on when and how to use the Trust Registration Service (TRS) and also reporting discrepancies on the TRS. The webinar is running on 6 February 2023. Agents can sign up to the webinar on the HMRC registration page.

Agent forms

HMRC has published a list of all of the current i-forms and g-forms available for agents to use. The guidance includes links to the g-forms that are currently accessible by agents, although some of these require a Government Gateway login. HMRC recently introduced a feature for forms to be previewed before completion.

COVID-19 VAT deferrals

Businesses that deferred VAT payments during the pandemic should now have repaid the VAT that was deferred, or have a payment plan in place. Any business that has not done so may be charged a 5% penalty and interest. Businesses in this position should contact HMRC as soon as possible to minimise the risk of penalties. Anyone struggling to pay their deferred VAT should contact HMRC to agree manageable payments.

XBRL tagging of 2022 company accounts

HMRC has confirmed that accounts submitted with corporation tax computations for 2022 accounting periods cannot be accepted if they are tagged using the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) 2022 Taxonomy. The 2021 FRC taxonomy will need to be used instead. Although most eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) software will be doing this automatically, it is worth checking which accounts taxonomy is being used.

HMRC is also currently unable to accept US GAAP 2021 taxonomy and so accounts prepared under US GAAP must use the 2018 taxonomy instead.

HMRC has confirmed that the need to re-tag accounts will be accepted as a reasonable excuse for late filing of returns. It will confirm a timeline for release of new taxonomies in due course via this page.

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• Issue 103 of Agent Update