The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is consulting on proposals to tighten up buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage lending rules, after the Bank of England warned that high risk loans could lead to a market crash which would have an adverse effect on individuals investing in property as a source of retirement income

ICAEW is urging the government to make more information available about the making tax digital plans and the move to online filing of accounts, after research found 75% of UK businesses do not currently maintain their accounts electronically using accounting software

Scott-Moncrieff is to merge with Edinburgh-based firm, Ogilvie & Company, expanding the tax advice and trust management team at the accountancy firm

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published the 2015 annual report on the enforcement and regulatory activities of accounting regulators across the EU28, highlighting the need for more consistency in the application and use of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 

HMRC raised nearly half a billion pounds from investigations into the tax affairs of small businesses last year, according to data revealed by UHY Hacker Young following a freedom of information request, which warns that the introduction of specialist taskforces is likely to see scrutiny increase further

Global views on the future of audit are so diverse that countries cannot reach consensus on how quickly to introduce changes which some jurisdictions feel are long overdue, with a marked divide between countries where audit is still developing and those where it is long established, according to research by ACCA and Grant Thornton

With less than three months to go until the EU referendum, under half of UK companies have considered what effect the result  will have on their organisation, according to a poll by ICSA, the Governance Institute and the Core Partnership, reflecting the findings of a recent Grant Thornton survey

Ahead of the introduction of the new flat-rate state pension in April, the National Audit Office (NAO) is warning that pension payments for people with Guaranteed Minimum Pensions (GMP) who contracted out in the 1980s, could receive a lower income, criticising the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) for poor communications on the issue, reports Pat Sweet

The Scotland Act has received Royal Assent and now becomes law, offering wider devolved powers and paving the way for the Scottish government to set income tax rates and thresholds

As auto enrolment pensions are rolled out to even the smallest businesses in the UK with less than nine employees, Clare Abrahams, head of auto enrolment at Aon, provides an essential action plan packed with tips and hints on how to ensure your AE plans run smoothly 

When Air Energi and Swift Technical merged to form Airswift, a $1.2bn turnover global business providing workforce solutions to the oil and gas sector, cross-border financing issues were an important consideration in the merger process, say Alex Dell and Charles Thain of law firm Mayer Brown

As part of the ongoing investigation into the use of profit shifting by multinationals to offset tax liabilities, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on responsible tax, chaired by Dame Margaret Hodge MP, has called up OECD tax chief to give formal evidence at a session