Consultation work
The Committee wants to hear your views on two public consultations – “Electronic invoicing: promoting e-invoicing across UK businesses and the public sector” and “Reforms to Inheritance Tax agricultural property relief and business property relief: application in relation to trusts”.
The e-invoicing consultation is seeking to gather views on standardising e-invoicing and how to increase its adoption across the UK. The consultation will run to 7 May 2025. Please share your views with the Committee by Friday 18 April 2025.
Regarding the consultation on Inheritance Tax (IHT) reliefs, many readers will be aware that as part of the Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced controversial reforms to two key IHT reliefs, agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR), which will commence from April 2026.
A new £1 million allowance will apply to the combined value of property that qualifies for 100 percent BPR/APR/both. After the £1 million allowance has been exhausted, relief will apply at a lower rate of 50 percent to the combined value of qualifying assets.
HMRC has launched a limited technical consultation which means that stakeholders will not have the opportunity to provide feedback on the overall policy changes. Instead, the consultation is limited to examining the technical aspects of the £1 million allowance for property settled into trust. As a technical consultation, it is running for a shorter period of time to Wednesday 23 April 2025.
The Institute is aware of the damaging impact that these reforms will have on businesses and farms in Northern Ireland and in November 2024 flagged these concerns to the Government. We would encourage members to take the opportunity to respond to this limited technical consultation and express their wider views on this damaging policy change.
The Committee also asks you to share your views on these policy changes as we will again be writing to the Government to highlight the particular damage this will cause in Northern Ireland. Please contact us by Friday 11 April 2025.
New email enquiry service for agents
On 31 March 2025, HMRC launched a new email enquiry service for agents to help escalate and resolve individual (and not employer) PAYE and Self-Assessment queries which are over four weeks old. More details of how the new services intends to work are available in an email to agents which you can read on our website. For several years, the Institute has been advocating for HMRC to establish an email enquiry service for agents including in last year’s Pre-Budget submission and in a letter at the end of 2024 to HMRC on services.
The Institute participates in the new HMRC stakeholder forum, the Customer Services for Tax Agents and Representative Bodies Working Group which aims to assess current agent services and to develop improved services for agents contacting HMRC with client queries. This new service is an output from that forum which will continue its work.
Making Tax Digital (MTD) is coming
It’s now less than a year to the first tranche of mandation of MTD for income tax for unincorporated sole trade businesses and landlords with turnover exceeding £50,000. The Committee met recently with HMRC’s MTD Programme Director who also was in attendance at the February 2025 Practice News webinar. HMRC gave an update on the current status of the project whilst also reflecting on its challenges. HMRC’s ambitions for the next phase of testing in 2025/26 were also discussed. HMRC is currently writing to agents who are likely to have clients in the first phase of mandation; this will be followed by letters to taxpayers.
HMRC is also keen to hear about the plans of our member firms to get ready for this major change and specifically why firms are not planning to take part in testing in 2025/26. In particular HMRC would welcome views on what challenges/ blockers are getting in the way of participation.
Despite our reservations about MTD, the Institute will continue to work with HMRC on MTD readiness and is developing a cross-department MTD strategy to assist members in their preparations. We will continue to represent members views as we approach April 2026.
