Tax First May: 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.

 

In this May edition, we look at the relaxation of the controlled foreign companies rules, the changes to the degrouping rules and the introduction of the branch exemption, as well as the proposed patent box - all changes which are rearranging the appearance of the UK tax landscape. In an ever-changing business environment, is now the time to re-examine your tax strategy?

 

HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) has recently reversed its proposed rules changes to payments made in shares to former employees. We explain this move in greater detail and outline the potential impact this reversal could have.

 

Following the introduction of electronic filing, there will now be penalties for any paper returns HMRC receives for periods ending on or after 31 March 2011. We highlight this announcement and also tell you a little more about our recent webcast on HMRC’s wider penalty regime. You can watch a recording of the webcast here.

 

HMRC is expanding the use of Code of Practice 9 (COP9), its most powerful weapon against suspected tax fraud apart from prosecution. The numbers of COP9 cases are increasing significantly now that HMRC is making use of the information it has on offshore bank accounts and other forms of evasion. We outline how COP9 could affect you and your business.