Starbucks has won a long-running tax case against the European Commission over accusations that it subverted state aid rules to reduce its tax bill in the Netherlands

In our regular VAT Q&A series, Croner Taxwise VAT adviser Tony Chamberlain examines whether reduced rate VAT is chargeable on renovation work on a bungalow which has lain empty for more than two years

In this First Tier Tribunal case, the appellant Koolmove Ltd appealed against the denial by HMRC of amounts of input VAT claimed for pre-incorporation legal services. Aleem Islan, technical consultation manager at AAT, examines the ruling and the reasons for HMRC’s loss of the case

New students starting university this year could be targeted by a fresh wave of tax scams, HMRC has warned

Campaigning group Fair Tax Mark is to launch a research and development project looking at ways to expand its existing accreditation scheme to include businesses headquartered outside the UK, in response to fears of ‘bottom of the barrel’ kitemarks appearing

HMRC’s latest quarterly list of deliberate tax defaulters is topped by three wholesale suppliers, each of which paid over £1m in penalties for underpaid tax, while fast food outlets, hairdressers, hauliers and grocery shops also feature among the more than one hundred ‘named and shamed’ businesses found to be owing some £13m

HMRC has won a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) case concerning the employment status of three BBC presenters who used personal service companies (PSCs), in an IR35 ruling involving over £300,000 in tax which threatens to add to the ‘chaos’ around how the employment rules should be applied

HMRC is consulting on draft amendments to legislation about the taxation of UK property rich collective investment vehicles and their investors, which are designed to ensure the new rules work as intended

In the event the UK leaves the EU without an agreement, HMRC has warned that the current agreements to avoid double payment of the equivalent of national insurance contributions (NICs) in member states will be voided, affecting seconded employees

Ireland and Italy have lost a lengthy battle to overturn an EU demand for the recovery of millions of euros in taxes from two aluminium metal manufacturers, following a judgment that a tax exemption amounted to illegal state aid

Two US subsidiaries of financial services giant Prudential Financial have been censured by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to disclose conflicts of interest and making misleading disclosures, after they were reorganised so that Prudential received over $200m (£160m) in tax benefits to the detriment of funds they advised

In a first for a global tax authority, New Zealand has clarified the guidance for companies who pay staff in cryptocurrency and need to complete tax returns. Peter Stewart, associate at Cooke, Young & Keidan assesses the risks and compliance issues