The First Tier Tribunal (FTT) has allowed a taxpayer’s appeal against PAYE return late filing penalties, finding that reliance on his accountant who was suffering from ill health had amounted to a reasonable excuse for a taxpayer in a similar position and therefore by applying the ordinary principles of proportionality, fairness and transparency should also apply to this taxpayer.

HMRC has published a further consultation on simplifying the calculation of IHT charges on trusts at ten yearly intervals or when assets are transferred out of the trust and making fairer the way the nil-rate band is allocated as part of those calculations, for comment by 29 August 2014.

There were few surprises in the Queen’s Speech 2014, delivered at the state opening of parliament today, with the focus on pensions reform, child care vouchers and some tax avoidance measures.

HMRC is looking for agents to take part in user testing for the ongoing website transition to the new government portal, www.gov.uk, which will replace the current HMRC website

HMRC’s use of debt collection agencies (DCAs) to collect overpaid tax credits has been criticised by the campaigning group False Economy and the charity Citizens Advice, which claim thousands of people are in debt as a result of errors by the tax office.

The Icebreaker tax avoidance scheme was outlawed by the tax courts, but where does this leave unwitting investors, asks Sara White