Chancellor Rishi Sunak is to deliver a ‘summer economic update’ tomorrow, 8 July, outlining the government’s plans to support the economy through the first phase of recovery from the coronavirus crisis, with likely options including temporary tax cuts, funding for green projects, and job creation schemes

The Treasury has extended the temporary scrapping of VAT on personal protection equipment (PPE) until the end of October, with the move expected to save £155m for care homes and businesses dealing with the coronavirus outbreak

Covid-19 has prevented access to land and property of significant national value, but HMRC is granting owners leeway over its tax incentive scheme, say Withers’ Charlie Tee and Louise Williamson

Levels of automatic exchange of data between tax authorities almost doubled last year, uncovering €10 trillion in offshore assets, according to the OECD which says this is a ‘game changer’ in the fight against tax evasion

Here are the rules employers and employees need to know to access the government’s flexible furlough scheme that launches on 1 July, explained by Alan Price, HR expert and CEO at BrightHR

In our regular Q&A series from Croner Taxwise, tax adviser, Amaira Badat explores how an SME’s R&D relief claim will be affected if they also claim under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)

The growing budget deficit is concentrating minds on radical reforms to inheritance tax, which now appear more attractive in the current climate, say Judith Millar and Alastair Collett of BDB Pitmans

HMRC has admitted that changes to its working practices, as a result of the pandemic, have resulted in delays in processing and refunding VAT claims submitted under the Overseas Refund Scheme

The Treasury should make more use of carbon taxes and consider other changes in tax policy in order to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and bolster public finances, according to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC)

As the Covid-19 crisis forces more businesses to raise funds and take on more debt, MHA MacIntyre Hudson’s Chris Denning analyses the possible tax pitfalls of corporate refinancing

HSBC is facing a £1.3bn legal challenge from a group of over 300 investors in a series of Disney filming financing schemes known as the Eclipse Partnerships, which HMRC ruled were tax avoidance vehicles

In this month’s VAT updates, Graham Elliott considers input reimbursement, the use of CCTV as evidence and whether medical scans are VAT-exempt