Tax First January: News, events and change in tax

 

Our Tax First newsletter provides tax professionals with a round-up of the past month's major financial news and a calendar of useful diary dates.

 

HM Treasury published draft Finance Bill 2011 clauses on 9 December 2010, as well as several updates to various tax consultations. In this issue we give you a brief overview of the main announcements. We also look at the employee tax implications and take a more detailed look at the anti-avoidance measures that were announced.

 

The International Accounting Standards Board has published an exposure draft on hedge accounting. We give you the highlights of the draft, which includes a relaxation in the hedge effectiveness tests; some relaxation of what can be designated as a hedged item and/or be a hedging instrument; and changes to the accounting treatment of fair value hedges.

 

HM Revenue & Customs has changed its policy on the VAT treatment of samples, and will be changing the UK VAT legislation in Finance Bill 2011. We review the changes and ask whether you could have a VAT claim.

 

Finally for this edition, we profile the January to March series of ICTA tax events. You can find out more on our ICTA website.