The Treasury has approved the release of funds for a 10-year overhaul of Buckingham Palace which will see a modernisation programme to update dilapidated electricals and heating systems with work set to start in April 2017

Having been reluctant to do so, the government should be prepared to take advantage of little-used powers to ensure tax transparency overseas, says Margaret Hodge MP

HMRC’s outsourcing deal with Concentrix and the financial stability of both the NHS and schools are due to come under scrutiny at the public accounts committee (PAC) at the beginning of next year, while there will also be sessions on the defence estate and defence equipment plan, after the National Audit Office (NAO) issued qualified accounts on spending in these areas

Philip Hammond has a lot riding on his first set piece to Parliament on 23 November, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies warning this week that the outlook for public finances has deteriorated, requiring a £25bn increase in borrowing by 2019/20. Taxbriefs provide seven ways in which the Chancellor could surprise us

Conservative MP and Public Accounts Committee member Stephen Phillips has resigned, citing ‘irreconcilable policy differences’ with the government over Brexit

Members of the CIOT and Association of Taxation Technicians have called for the £10,000 exemption from mandatory reporting responsibilities under MTD to rise to match the £83,000 VAT threshold

Leaving the EU could encourage ‘greater promiscuity’ in corporate tax policy according to Labour MP and former Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Margaret Hodge

Making Tax Digital should be delayed by as much as 10 years in order to allow businesses to adopt ‘something that works after being properly tested’, according to the Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) national chairman Mike Cherry

Katharine Braddick has been appointed to the role of director general, financial services at the Treasury following an external recruitment process

After accusations the Chancellor is too like an accountant in his attitude to Brexit, and the prime minister, Theresa May’s criticism of the accounting profession at the Conservative party conference, ACCA policy manager Anthony Walters calls for government support

Plans for an EU financial transaction tax (FTT) have been brought back into focus, after the breakaway group of 10 member states which have committed to introducing the levy indicated they will publish their plans by the end of the year.

Chancellor, Philip Hammond, is making the National Infrastructure Committee (NIC) a permanent body from January 2017, which will provide government with advice on investments and infrastructure priorities