The government’s 2017 sale of student loans at 48% of their face value to unnamed private investors has been fiercely criticised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), who have called it ‘a short-sighted approach which fails to convince’

A Lords committee has issued a scathing report on HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT program, due to come into full effect in April 2019, attacking HMRC’s unrealistic timeframe, lack of communication with businesses, and failure to improve following previous criticism

Divisions over the government’s Brexit agreement has caused Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to deliver a stinging blow by failing to back the government on amendments to the Finance Bill proposed by opposition parties

The government has been forced into a U-turn over the planned timetable for reducing the stakes on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which will now be introduced in April 2019 following public and political outcry and a ministerial resignation

Lord Forsyth has written to the Chancellor on the subject of the changes to offshore time limits, expressing misgivings about the lack of consultation at early stages and the impact it will have on honest taxpayers

The EU is considering proposals to introduce a digital services tax on multinational tech giants, mirroring the UK's proposed digital tax, with the French finance minister calling for agreement before the end of the year

Taxpayers have had a ‘purr-fect’ Budget present with the news that Gladstone, the Treasury’s resident cat with specific mouse hunting duties, is not costing them a penny this year and has not been on the payroll - either as a full-time employee or via a personal services contract - since his appointment

MPs are warning 'cracks are showing' as HMRC seeks to manage a ‘daunting’ workload in advance of Brexit, with mounting concerns about the possible impact of delays introducing its new customs system on businesses adapting to a new VAT regime

Chris Denning, head of international and corporate taxation at MHA MacIntyre Hudson, suggests that the US might retaliate against the UK’s digital services tax introduced in the Autumn Budget

The Chancellor’s plans to introduce a 2% digital services tax on large digital platforms, announced in the Budget, have come under fire in the US, with a strongly worded letter from the Chamber of Commerce to the US Treasury demanding the White House takes action to counter a ‘dangerous precedent’

The Chancellor’s Budget included a handful of initiatives intended to bolster his statement that ‘the UK is entering a new chapter and the era of austerity is finally coming to an end’, including a special Brexit coin, money for veterans’ charities and funding for community projects

The government is to carry out a number of consultations into current tax and accounting policy, including R&D reliefs and the implementation of IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts, and has yet to determine a direction for the long-standing issue of taxation of trusts