With days to go until the end of the 2015/16 tax year, tax experts at chartered accountants Blick Rothenberg LLP provide a snapshot of last-minute tax planning tips from property tax changes to savings, ISAs, pensions, dividends overhaul and maximising personal tax-free allowances to get financial affairs in order by 6 April

With an increasing number of phishing attacks from scammers purporting to be the taxman, HMRC has updated its guidance on how to distinguish between genuine contact and phishing attempts, with new information about identifying text messages, which it is using as part of a new security verification process for online accounts 

HMRC has issued updated guidance for employers about student loan repayments, providing new information on the procedures for handling overpayments and how to judge which of two plans apply to an individual’s loan repayment schedule

Download the HMRC capital gains tax (CGT) indexation allowance for December 2015

The key HMRC filing deadlines from April to July 2016 including inheritance tax due on lifetime transfers, employment quarterly intermediary reporting and deadline for use of capital gains tax (CGT) annual allowances

A public health consultant, Dr Walapu, has lost his judicial review over a challenge to HMRC’s imposition of an accelerated payments notice (APN) relating to his use of a notified tax avoidance scheme, with the judge saying there was no evidence HMRC’s actions were ‘unlawfully retrospective’ and nor were they ‘an abuse of power or otherwise unfair’

The UK government has won a VAT victory over the EU over the VAT rating of tampons and sanitary products with rules set to come into force shortly to remove the current 5% charge

The plan for a zero-rate band for national insurance contributions (NICs) for the self-employed raises when Class 2 NICS are abolished raises tax compliance issues around the contributory element, says Meg Wilson CTA, tax writer at CCH

Following confusion over gift aid donations, HMRC has issued a clarification on the tax relief status of online donations to charity websites with messages signed by more than one person

Tax changes due to take effect in April, when there will be an additional 3% stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on the purchase of a second home, are having an impact on the market according to the  latest HMRC figures on UK property transactions, which show there was a 5.5% increase in the number of residential property transactions between January and February

In less than a fortnight, Scottish taxpayers will start to pay the Scottish rate of income tax (SRIT), which means that each resident Scottish taxpayer will be issued with an S tax code prefix effective 6 April

As announced at Budget 2016, legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2016 to enable the 'English votes for English laws' procedure to apply to the UK main rates of income tax in light of new devolved tax powers for Scotland