At the recent G20 meeting in China, finance ministers stressed their support for greater tax transparency, calling for a report from the OECD on the implementation of automatic exchange of information before the end of the year, and stating that by July 2017 it wants a list of non-compliant jurisdictions

As tax rules become more complex and clients more willing to sue, Virginia Hickley, head of financial claims at Mills & Reeve examines how accountants can safeguard against claims

HMRC has made changes on the deduction of student loan repayments from employees’ pay with the introduction of two types of student loan, plan one and plan two, coming into effect from the 2016/17 tax year, however issues have arisen with downloading employer notices for student loans

The future of the chargeable rate of VAT on digital publications and ebooks is back on the agenda at the EU as the European Commission has announced plans for a two-month consultation with a view to abolishing the current full rate VAT

The UK levies higher purchase taxes on prime real estate than many key competitors, and risks reducing its attractiveness to globally-mobile executives and high net worth investment from overseas as a result, according to a study by UHY Hacker Young

HMRC is facing calls for more investment in improving its telephone contact services, despite the department’s commitment to ‘digital by default’, with a report from the government’s Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) saying telephony will continue to be an important medium for communication for some time and issues around call waiting times must be addressed

Families jetting off to Greece for a summer break now that school holidays have started will find VAT rates have been increased on a second tranche of Aegean islands, even though an earlier VAT increase has resulted in a revenue shortfall, according to local reports

DVLA annual accounts show a £93m fall in revenue in the year following the removal of paper tax discs, which is higher than the government’s previous estimate of £80m

The House of Commons is expected to consider the remaining stages of the Finance Bill on 5 and 6 September 2016, after it completed the committee stage in June 2016

Tax relief payouts for film schemes has increased by 30% as well as other fluctuations to high-end television (HETV), animation, and video games for years up to 2015-16, according to statistics from HMRC

The OECD is calling on governments to adopt tax policy which encourage inclusive growth, with the benefits shared more evenly within society, at the same time as the Spanish government indicated it may raise taxes on business, rather than personal income, in a bid to reduce its budget deficit

A broadband service outage suffered by BT and its customers affected firms and agents across the country after the Government Gateway was knocked out, preventing submissions and affecting tax compliance