Our essential snapshot of the key measures announced in Budget 2015, including all the implementation dates and effective dates for new measures affecting income tax, NICs, charities, capital gains tax, inheritance tax and corporation tax, as well as changes to tax administration

HMRC has published draft legislation and explanatory notes amending the rules for the tax-advantaged venture capital schemes, although the new rules will not come into force in this month's Finance Bill due to the lack of time for consultation

The Pensions Regulator has launched a consultation on whether to provide a basic automatic enrolment (AE) assessment tool for employers who use HMRC’s Basic PAYE Tool

ICAS is calling for the next government to ‘get serious’ on simplifying the lengthy and overly-complex UK tax code in order to reduce tax avoidance and says the next government should ensure the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is properly resourced to continue its tax simplification work

The Chancellor’s proposal to scrap annual tax returns as outlined in the Budget will create problems and increase costs for taxpayers and lead to additional work for accountants, according to a survey of practising accountants carried out by ACCA

Chancellor George Osborne has announced that secondary legislation will be introduced to increase the maximum annual donation amount which can be claimed through the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) from £5,000 to £8,000, in a move which will help charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs

Senior HMRC executives have confirmed the department is taking a new approach to replacing its existing Aspire IT contract, opting for a phased handover with its major supplier rather than the previously planned ‘big bang’ end to the contract, in order to minimise risks to the systems responsible for collecting £500bn annually

The OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes has published nine peer review reports, including a phase 1 supplementary report for Switzerland, demonstrating continuing progress toward implementation of the international standard for exchange of information on request but stresses that four countries still remain non-compliant including Luxembourg