It’s been a busy few months at STEP. Our public-facing website advisingfamilies.org marked its first birthday on 22 May. Launched as part of a wider campaign to raise public awareness of STEP and TEPs, the site has clocked up over 130,000 visits, and over 700 followers on social media. Members and their firms have done… Read More What’s been happening at STEP in England and Wales?
Update: 4 September 2018 HMRC would like to notify members regarding a mismatch problem with the SA950 Trust and Estates Tax Return Guide and the SA900 2017/18. The original guidance notes indicated that untaxed interest could be declared at boxes 9.2 to 9.4 when in fact, if box 9.3 is populated with ‘0’, automatic capture… Read More The future of the Trust Registration Service
STEP is working with HMRC on a Gift Aid working group set up to explore options to maximise the amount of Gift Aid that charities can claim on donations, together with ways of increasing customer understanding of the system and how it works. HMRC is also investigating opportunities to improve the way that Higher Rate… Read More The Gift Aid tax gap
Update 23 March: HMRC has updated its guidance to clarify that if a penalty is payable for late registration, it will be the burden of the lead trustee and not the agent. We received the following communication from HMRC on 5 March 2018: ‘On 8 December 2017, HMRC announced that while the 31 January 2018… Read More HMRC announces trustees, NOT agents, will be liable for penalties
Update: 18 January Further to the post last week alerting members to an issue with SA900 forms, HMRC has issued the following update: ‘In December 2017, we advised of an issue affecting a small number of SA900 forms filed electronically which resulted in some inaccurate calculations where there is a capital gain liability. The problem… Read More HMRC message regarding SA900 forms
Update: 19 October HMRC has asked us to disseminate the following: ‘The new TRS is now available for agents to use. As part of this online process, agents will be taken through the steps to create an Agent Services account before they can register on behalf of trustees. Agents use the link from http://www.gov.uk/trusts-taxes/trustees-tax-responsibilities to… Read More Update: TRS now open to agents
Agents remain unable to access the Trust Registration Service (TRS) after technical errors were identified in the system, HMRC has confirmed. However, the deadline for completing the register of a trust for self-assessment and providing beneficial ownership information remains 5 December 2017. This news comes shortly after HMRC published its comprehensive guidance for the new… Read More Technical hitches remain for access to UK Trust Registration Service
STEP advised members earlier this year that the Criminal Finances Act 2017 received Royal Assent on 27 April 2017. The Act contains the new corporate criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion’, which is anticipated to take effect in September 2017. Even though tax evasion and facilitation of tax-related crimes are… Read More Are you prepared for the UK’s new corporate criminal offence?
With reporting now underway in the UK for both FATCA and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), STEP has been liaising with HMRC on some of the finer points of reporting. Can I still submit CRS amendments? There is some time available following the 31 May 2017 deadline for submission of amendments or corrections. If you… Read More Information exchange reporting FAQs
STEP attended the most recent CRS Business Advisory Group hosted by HMRC and discussed the following issues: FAQs HMRC advised that new documents on the OECD portal have been published along with some additional FAQs. Anti-avoidance Members were interested to know when the OECD will publish its loophole paper which will review loophole reporting strategies.… Read More CRS reporting update, June 2017
The STEP Blog 