New guidance on furnished holiday lettings abolition
Legislation included in Finance Bill 2024-25 abolishes the special tax rules for furnished holiday lettings with effect from 1 April 2025 for companies and 6 April 2025 for individuals. HMRC has updated its property income manual to include guidance on the change in tax treatment, including the implications for jointly-held property.
The Tax Faculty discussed the changes at length in an episode of its podcast, The Tax Track, recorded in September 2024.
Making Tax Digital: HMRC webinars
HMRC will be hosting a webinar on Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax on 25 March 2025 and 3 April 2025. HMRC says that this is the first in a series of three webinars aimed at agents. The first webinar will provide an introduction to MTD income tax and the second and third webinars will explain how to get ready and sign up for MTD income tax.
Learn more about MTD income tax at ICAEW’s MTD hub, or take ICAEW’s MTD quiz to test your knowledge.
New tool for checking tax liabilities on pension income
HMRC has published a new online tool for pensioners. The tool is intended to help the user determine if they have tax to pay on their income from the state pension and/or a private pension for 2024/25. The tool checks the figures entered for income against the standard personal allowance of £12,570, explains if tax is likely to be payable and if so, suggests what the user should do next.
VAT repayments to insolvency practitioners
HMRC has announced that it has changed the way it issues VAT repayments to insolvency practitioners from 10 March 2025.
Form VAT7 now includes a section to input bank details. HMRC advises that:
- the most recent version of form VAT7 is used; and
- the answer 'The business has gone into liquidation' is selected for the question 'Why are you applying to cancel your registration?'
Removal of CHIEF Tariff Volume 3 from gov.uk
HMRC has informed us that, following the decommissioning of the customs handling of import and export freight (CHIEF) system, the UK Trade Tariff: volume 3 for CHIEF collection will be removed from gov.uk on or around 1 May 2025.
Anyone wishing to access the content after that date will need to use the government’s web archive. HMRC says that the whole collection will be available by searching the archives for its url. Also, HMRC advises that anyone who anticipates needing to access the content after 1 May 2025 may wish to consider creating reference copies before that date.
International tax round-up
CFE Tax Advisers Europe has published its latest collection of tax top 5 developments. It includes:
- a report by the organisation for economic co-operation and development (OECD) examining how capital gains are taxed across member countries; and
- an opinion statement prepared by the CFE indirect taxes subcommittee on the VAT treatment of chain transactions involving imports into the EU.
Tax Faculty
This guidance is created by the Tax Faculty, recognised internationally as a leading authority and source of expertise on taxation. The Faculty is the voice of tax for ICAEW, responsible for all submissions to the tax authorities. Join the Faculty for expert guidance and support enabling you to provide the best advice on tax to your clients or business.