New Finance Bill means 24 new taxes

The new Finance Bill introduces three new taxes, taking the total number of taxes introduced this century to 24. Apart from two oneoff levies, and the Health and Social Care Levy (which was repealed before it came into effect, and is not included in the total above), none of these or any other taxes have been abolished over this period.

Two of the three new taxes in the new Finance Bill are to implement the G20-OECD Pillar 2 framework in the UK, putting in place a global minimum rate of corporation tax:

• A multinational top-up tax, which will require large UK-headquartered multinational groups to pay additional tax where their operations in a foreign jurisdiction have an effective tax rate of less than 15%.

• A supplementary domestic top-up tax which will require large groups, including those operating exclusively in the UK, to pay a top-up tax where their UK operations have an effective tax rate of less than 15%.

At 478 pages, the Bill is the longest Finance Bill since 2017. The lengthiest measures in the Bill are the two new ‘top-up taxes’ (168 pages between them) and the new alcohol duty regime (66 pages).

We want the Office of Tax Simplification back!

The UK government needs to reverse its ‘ill-conceived’ decision to axe the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), says top 10 accountancy firm Azets.

ment may gain access to location and private user data through the country’s authoritarian laws.

Others feel that some of the impetus behind this move may be strategic in nature. TikTok has 100 million users in the US and has stated concerns about Chinese misinformation. But critics have highlighted that TikTok is on par with other social media platforms in the amount of data it collects from users.

The reasoning behind the ban of ChatGPT in Italy is data protection, and it may work with the regulator to ensure compliance and get back online. Many institutions see such technology as a threat to jobs and a potential proliferator of misinformation. We must continue to monitor to ensure a balance between protection and freedom is achieved.

Ann a Kat e Phelan is Head of Product at Eintech

Taxwatch

Record Inheritance tax take Inheritance tax (IHT) brought £531m into the UK Treasury in February alone, according to new stats. That brings the total for the 2022/23 tax year to a record £6.4bn and counting.

IHT raised £6.1bn for the 2021/22 financial year, so this year’s total it is already ahead of last year.

The Office of Budget Responsibility is predicting that the IHT take will jump to £45bn by 2027/28. This is because

Associate Director John Hiddleston (pictured) has written to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt MP and Financial Secretary to the Treasury Victoria Atkins MP to call for a rethink.

The OTS was abolished by the then Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in his ill-fated mini-Budget last September, with its mandate instead delegated to the Treasury and HMRC.

Hiddleston warned that a new independent body is vital to tackle an ever-increasing paperwork burden – especially for entrepreneurs. He wants to see the creation of a ‘beefed up’ OTS and rules where every time a new tax law is introduced at least one old tax rule must be repealed. Basic tax should also be taught in schools, he said.

Prison time doubled for ‘most wanted’ tax criminal

wanted criminals after absconding during her trial in 2013. The 48-year-old spent nine years on the run and was returned to the UK by HMRC in June 2022 and jailed for eight years a month later.

6.7% of deaths will trigger an inheritance charge – up from 4.1% in 2020/21. That is nigh on 50,000 extra deaths.

Yes to carbon border tax

A proposed carbon border tax could play a crucial role in achieving net zero emissions but will only be effective if it complements effective carbon pricing within the UK, the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) and Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) have warned.

Sarah Panitzke, originally from York, played a leading role in a vast multi-million-pound VAT fraud and became one of the UK’s most

She was sentenced to another nine years in prison for failing to repay a £2.4m confiscation order. She now faces 17 years in prison and will still owe the money plus interest. The total amount outstanding, including interest, which continues to accrue at a rate of £538 a day, and has reached £3,782,779 as at February 2023.

The Government recently launched a consultation on a range of measures designed to protect UK manufacturers from being undercut by countries with softer environmental rules, including a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which would effectively impose a charge on some imports from those countries.

The proposed tax is likely to target energy-intensive products such as iron and steel, cement, aluminium and fertilisers, at first, and echoes a similar policy in the EU.

No one charged under evasion laws

HMRC has not charged any UK firm with the ‘failure to prevent tax evasion’ offence since it was introduced six years ago.

Since 2017 British companies can be criminally prosecuted if it is found they have failed to put in adequate checks and systems to prevent its staff from facilitating tax evasion.