With less than a year to go before quarterly reporting starts for unincorporated businesses, self employed and landlords over the VAT threshold in April 2018, Stephen Relf ACA CTA, specialist tax writer at Wolters Kluwer, has pulled together a handy guide to key reporting dates for accounting periods for HMRC's Making Tax Digital 

President Donald Trump has ordered aides to construct a draft tax reform plan which will see corporation tax cut to 15% from the current rate of 35% as part of plans to accelerate US growth by easing the burden on businesses, according to White House reports

The European Commission has approved the UK’s plans to reform the existing horserace betting levy scheme to include offshore bookmakers, which have been judged to be in line with EU state aid rules

Government departments and select committees have now entered a period of ‘purdah’ as the general election campaign gets underway, but there are signs that the two committees scrutinising HMRC proposals for Making Tax Digital are planning to work together to push for more changes and a slower implementation of the current plans

Making Tax Digital has been removed from the Finance Bill 2017, as well as a majority of other tax measures such as corporate loss relief, the money purchase annual allowance for pensions and penalties for enablers of tax avoidance schemes, confirmed by government at the Finance Bill committee stage debate

Many of the data submissions made by early adopters over the next two months under the new common reporting standard (CRS) are likely to be rejected and returned for correction and resubmission, adding to compliance costs, according to predictions from Sovos, a global tax compliance solution provider

In part three of our EU Directives series, Stefan Petrovski, accounting supervisor at Primexis, asks whether EU plans for a directive to introduce a consolidated European corporate tax base (CCTB) would work across disparate economic bases with individual tax codes, rules and rates

The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) has raised serious concerns about the impact of new rules on tackling tax avoidance which could have an unexpected impact on ordinary workers, particularly those hired through umbrella companies or outside standard PAYE contracts, for example cab drivers or delivery couriers

HMRC has opened a four-week consultation on plans announced at Budget 2017 to charge UK VAT on all telecommunication services, particularly mobile phone calls and internet browsing, used outside the EU by UK consumers

HMRC has updated its guidance on what happens during compliance checks on businesses, including details of what constitutes a ‘reasonable excuse’

The Conservatives have yet to launch their election manifesto, but comments made so far on the campaign trail suggest the party is likely to consider abandoning its previous pledge not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance taxes in the next Parliament

The Treasury Select Committee has cancelled the two evidence sessions it had scheduled for this week, one on Making Tax Digital and the other with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, due to the upcoming snap general election