Latest News
HMRC has announced that from the start of this month they
will not accept Intrastat returns via post, that is paper forms C1500 and
C1501. Instead all declarations must be
made in an electronic format, such as Comma Separated Value (.csv) files or
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Furthermore all Intrastat declarations must be submitted by the 21st
day of the month following the end of the return period. Therefore HMRC must receive your March 2012
declaration by 21 April.
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The government has apparently set
the senior tax collector Lin Homer a target of raising £17bn from tax this
year. With last year’s tax revenues
putting £13.9bn into the Treasury coffers, it seems that the bulk, if not all,
of the remaining £3.1bn will come from the shadow economy being brought into
the light and going after those evading taxes.
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British Small and Medium Enterprises, or SMEs, have failed
to claim an estimated £2bn in expenses for the last financial year. A staggering £1.2bn of this is VAT which
hasn’t been identified or reclaimed properly.
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You may have heard recently
that the VAT liability of bulk mailings will change with effect from 2 April
this year as some of the changes to the postal system kick in. For the majority of users of such services (those
sending out mass advertising campaigns for example) their taxable status will
mean that they just recover the VAT on their VAT returns, a temporary cash flow
blip therefore being the worst impact they’ll feel. But what about those top end users of such
services for whom VAT recovery is an issue? Charities in particular will feel the impact.
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HMRC have now clarified
their policy on what companies who were previously registered for VAT,
deregistered, and are subsequently re-registered should do about goods-on-hand
at the point of re-registration.
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Last week saw the release of the Advocate General’s (“AG”) opinion in the case of Littlewoods Retail Ltd v HMRC, on which the UK courts had referred a number of question to the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”). The Littlewoods case had given the UK courts a number of points to consider in relation to taxpayers entitlement to receive a payment of compound interest following the repayment of VAT collected by HMRC in breach of EC Legislation. A number of cases in the courts have been ‘stayed’ pending the outcome of the Littlewoods ECJ reference.
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All of us at The VAT People would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and all our best wishes for the New Year!
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HMRC yesterday released the summary of responses to their
proposed Cost Sharing Exemption that the Chancellor announced to great fanfare
in his Autumn Statement. So just how useful will this new exemption
be?
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Recent BBC News reports suggest that following HMRCs recent
investigations into plumbers and restaurants, their tax evasion net is being
spread wider. As well as the obvious choices of the wealthy with assets
abroad and those who hold money in offshore bank accounts, their list now
includes private tutors, scrap metal dealers, doctors and dentists. The
figures the BBC reports are that around 2,500 doctors and dentists will receive
a letter in the next few days, giving them 21 days to pay any unpaid taxes or
face prosecution. Early next year, this net will spread wider still to
include those selling on internet marketplaces and electricians. Given these efforts to recover unpaid
tax in professions and trades that HMRC deem risky, VAT is likely to be high on
the agenda.
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The long awaited European Court of Justice, or ECJ, judgement has
finally been released in the case of Rank Group, and as ever the VAT world and
interested parties have been waiting with baited breath. The ECJ decision in itself
does not decide the winners or losers of the appeal, indeed it cannot do so
given the ECJs role as a provider of clarification rather than as a court of
tribunal, but it has given us a clearer view of how the world of VAT should be
shaped.
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