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VAT is an area of ever increasing risk and ensuring your business’ VAT processes and procedures are compliant can be complex.

Now that the 2023/24 tax year has ended, Grant Thornton has compiled a summary of reminders for the various end-of-year employer obligations to support your business with their compliance needs. If you wish to speak with an expert or have any questions, please contact one of our employment tax specialists listed below.

A number of important reliefs from inheritance tax are soon to be restricted for those owning land outside the UK.

On 27 February 2023, an agreement in principle was reached between the UK Government and the European Union (EU), titled the “Windsor Framework”. The purpose of this agreement is to address issues arising from the Northern Ireland (NI) Protocol, which was agreed as part of the UK’s exit from the EU in 2020.

New UK employment tax rules apply from 6 April 2021 when engaging contractors in the UK through intermediaries such as personal service companies. These rules are often referred to as “IR35” or “off-payroll worker rules” and require workers to be assessed under a number of indicators to determine if they are genuinely in business or really just an employee.

From 1 March 2021, a new domestic VAT reverse charge will be introduced for specified building and construction services. The new regime, which will have a significant impact on the sector, will require the purchaser rather than the supplier to account for VAT on certain construction services.

The upcoming Chancellor's Budget on 3 March has the potential to be a bumper edition. Following a modest Budget last year, this will be the first major fiscal event after Brexit and since the initial onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (‘TCA’) provides for continued coordination of social security for workers who move between the UK and the EU. This means these workers may be able to pay social security in just one country. Before the UK left the EU and during its transition period, EU regulation provided that workers moving between EU member states could, pay social security in a single country, often their normal country of residence.

Four and a half years after the June 2016 Brexit referendum, the UK and the EU have reached an agreement on their future trading relationship. The complete text of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (‘TCA’) spans some 1,246 pages and took effect from 1 January 2021.

In July 2020, the Chancellor asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to carry out a review of Capital Gains Tax (CGT). The stated purpose was to ‘identify opportunities relating to administrative and technical issues as well as areas where the present rules can distort behaviour or do not meet their policy intent’.

6 April 2020 brought further changes to the taxation of UK property as the UK government continues its effort to level the playing field between UK and offshore investors. This latest phase of measures transitions non-resident companies, that carry on a UK property business or have other UK property income, often referred to as Non-resident Landlords (NRLs), from the UK income tax regime to the UK corporation tax regime.

New EU mandatory disclosure requirements, commonly known as “DAC6”, have been introduced to require intermediaries and taxpayers to disclose reportable cross border arrangements to the relevant national tax authority, which will then be automatically exchanged with tax authorities in the UK and EU Member States.

The prominent international tax impact of these deadlines is as follows:

The UK government has announced that there will be a deferral of VAT payments falling due between 20 March and 30 June 2020. This is part of a package of measures to support businesses during the Coronavirus pandemic.

In our April 2020 Tax newsletter we look at: COVID-19 tax issues and support, Budget summary, Changes to reporting and paying Capital Gains Tax on UK residential property disposals; and 2019/20 Self Assessment.

Our Grant Thornton Northern Ireland experts provide full commentary on the Budget 2020.