Inheritance tax may be paid by less than 5% of estates but it is a hugely complex system and now the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to come up with simplification proposals. Paul Morton, tax director and Daphna Jowell, IHT review team leader at the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) consider key problem areas requiring reform

With Valentine’s Day just two days away, the ICAEW has crunched the numbers to bring some practicality to romance, by pointing out the tax benefits of saying ‘I do’ to a marriage or civil partnership proposal on Wednesday

Gift Aid’s aim of encouraging higher-rate taxpayers to make larger charitable donations delivers just 27p more for every additional £1 spent on the tax incentive, and charities would get substantially higher donations if the value of the relief were given directly to them, according to the National Audit Office (NAO) and University of Birmingham tax centre

Confusion about the operation of inheritance tax (IHT) is growing, with over two thirds of those liable not knowing the threshold for the standard nil rate band of £325,000, according to a survey by Canada Life

HMRC has published guidance on the new inheritance tax (IHT) deemed domicile rules which apply from 6 April 2017, and include changes to the number of years of residence needed in the UK for deemed domicile to apply and the addition of a new category

The latest scam to hit taxpayers is a call to mobile phone numbers from fraudsters posing as HMRC officials requesting immediate payment of £500 in so-called vishing attacks

With the 31 January deadline to submit your self-assessment tax return for the year ended 5 April 2017 having come and gone, Blick Rothenberg personal tax assistant manager explains what you should do if you missed the deadline

HMRC has released a raft of guidance in relation to non-doms, including updates to the deemed domicile rules and the remittance basis, plus information about cleansing mixed funds, which apply from 6 April 2017

The number of taxpayers who submitted their tax returns before the 31 January deadline hit 10.7 million, surpassing previous years records, with over 758,000 people cutting it fine and leaving it to the last minute to file

HMRC has clarified its guidance on changes affecting pension scheme administrators that reclaim tax relief using the relief at source (RAS) method, as a result of the introduction of the Scottish rate of income tax (SRIT)

Spontaneous taxes like the proposed latte levy and  disposable plastic bag levy are not designed to collect revenue but rather change current behaviour, says Yvette Nunn CTA of Berkeley Associates, warning that these so-called taxes are beginning to gather momentum, but are not the answer to wider problems 

Although there are no plans afoot to update HMRC’s tax treatment of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, HMRC has moved to clarify its position on the virtual currencies, reports Calum Fuller