Next week sees the first appearance by Chancellor Philip Hammond in front of the new Treasury ommittee, to be followed by a subsequent session when Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, will be facing MPs’ questions

Out of the 800 tax agents in HMRC’s latest webinar, 504 (63%) admitted to not feeling confident when helping clients understand the aspects of HMRC’s simple assessments, however this number dropped to 3% after experts from the tax authority outlined the new tax returns

With sketchy information available about the plans for the rollout of Making Tax Digital for VAT, Stephen Relf CTA ACA examines early plans for changes to VAT reporting including qualifying criteria, compliance and thresholds

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has kicked off a review of capital allowances and accounts depreciation with a focus on simplifying the currently hugely complex treatment of tangible fixed assets, and is calling for feedback from users

Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech to the Conservative party conference included a commitment to what she called a ‘new generation’ of council and housing association homes, plus long term social rental deals, as part of moves to address problems in the housing market, but had few details of any innovations designed to attract the business vote

The European Commission is planning the biggest reform of EU VAT rules in a quarter of a century, introducing a pan-European system which it says will be simpler to use and enable authorities to claw back some of the €150bn (£133bn) of VAT lost each year and tackle cross-border VAT fraud

Accountancy software provider Xero has said providing free programmes for Making Tax Digital quarterly reporting is not practical and should not be expected as the costs to build the software and provide a good service to taxpayers are too high, reports Amy Austin

Premier League side Newcastle United has lost a High Court challenge over a raid carried out at club offices by tax officials probing the finances of several football clubs

Ireland has been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after failing to collect €13bn (£11.5bn) from US technology giant Apple

Property buyers in Wales will be hit by a higher rate stamp duty on house purchases valued at over £400,000 in the first change to property tax as a result of new devolved tax powers which come into effect from 1 April 2018

Global online retailer Amazon has been ordered to pay €250m (£221m) after the European Commission ruled a decision taken by the courts in Luxembourg amounted to illegal state aid

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is to look at how advances in IT could simplify the design or administration of the tax system, particularly as Making Tax Digtal forces exclusive digital reporting and Blockchain currencies go more mainstream