Second Tax Day brings change and consultation

The second ever Tax Administration and Maintenance Day (Tax Day) took place on 27 April, with the government publishing a range of technical proposals and consultations.
The Tax Day announcements were grouped around simplification and modernisation of the tax system, tackling the tax gap and general policy and administrative issues. A total of 23 technical tax updates were published, although only a few of them will be directly relevant to the average taxpayer.
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Definite changes
National insurance credits: Some parents will not have received credits if they have not been claiming child benefit, mainly because of the impact of the High Income Child Benefit Charge. This affects future entitlement to the state pension, so the government is going to correct the problem on a retrospective basis.
Repayment agents: Some businesses specialising in making repayment claims from HMRC have been criticised due to the speculative nature of claims being made. From 2 August 2023, repayment agents must be registered with HMRC.
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Consultations
A range of consultations were also announced on Tax Day, including:
·     How the Help to Save scheme might be simplified. The scheme, which offers a 50% government bonus for low-income savers, is set to run in its current form until April 2025. The government wants to encourage take-up in the target group.
·     Non-compliance with the off-payroll working rules can result in tax and national insurance contributions being paid twice on the same income – by the deemed employer and also by the personal service company. The government is looking at a potential change so that the tax paid by the personal service company can be set off against the duplicate liability payable by the deemed employer.
·     Umbrella companies are coming under further scrutiny, with initial replies to a 2021 consultation to be published shortly, alongside calls for options for additional regulation to tackle non-compliance.
·     Even though the Construction Industry Scheme has been reformed several times since its inception, some further changes are being considered. In particular, VAT could be added to the list of taxes to be taken into account when deciding whether a company qualifies for gross payment status.

A summary of the Tax Day announcements, along with links to the related consultations, can be found here.