A number of suggested reforms to the CGT have been accepted by the government. In May 2021, the Office of Tax Simplification published a report that included 14 recommendations. The government’s response was published on 30 November. While any major changes, such as aligning CGT rates with income tax were ruled out, five of the OTS recommendations have been accepted. Some of these are concerned with improvements to guidance or access to the CGT service, but some technical changes will also be made.

Firstly, the window for…

The enterprise investment scheme (EIS) is a collection of tax incentives aimed at encouraging private investment into younger trading companies. EIS is well established; however, the rules have been subject to various changes and additions over the years.

In summary, the reliefs available on a qualifying investment are:

– income tax relief of 30%;
– capital gains tax reinvestment relief;
– capital gains tax exemption for the EIS shares themselves;
– automatic share loss relief against income (subject to adjustment for income tax relief given).

Of course, as the reliefs…

The first tax sites in the Freeports announced at the Spring Budget have now been designated, meaning that businesses operating within them can now access some of the reliefs.

The sites are located in three of the eight Freeport sites; namely Humber, Thames and Teeside as follows:

– Humber – Hull East and AMEP
– Teeside – Teesworks East and West, and Wilton International
– Thames – Dagenham, Tilbury and London Gateway

As a brief reminder, the tax breaks now available will include 100% first year allowances for plant and…

The discovery assessment provisions in s. 29 of TMA 1970 permits HMRC to make an assessment for underpaid tax in certain situations. The time limit for raising the assessment depends on the behaviour that led to the underpayment. The standard time limit is four years from the end of the relevant tax year, but this increases to six years in cases of carelessness. Where there has been deliberate behaviour leading to an underassessment, the time limit is 20 years.

A discovery assessment is a valuable tool in HMRC’s arsenal,…

The 2021 Autumn Budget was relatively quiet in terms of tax-related announcements, and the Finance Bill 2021/22 published on 4 November was similarly thin on new changes, consisting to some extent of measures that had already been announced, e.g. the abolition of basis periods.

Part 2 of the Bill introduces the draft legislation for the new Residential Property Developer Tax (RPDT). Businesses falling within the remit of the new tax will pay 4% on relevant profits, subject to an allowance of £25 million (or a pro-rated amount where…