Tax News
26 March 2025
Spring Statement
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, delivered her first Spring Statement today. Tax-light, it did not change any of the tax changes presented during her Autumn Budget last year.
The impact on Non-domiciles (or as we must call them, Long-Term Residents) has not changed, although, of course, those who have left the UK for more than 10 years and have not retained any UK assets are the winners here (or rather their children will be, as those estate will not pay UK inheritance tax).
There is confirmation that Making Tax Digital (MTD) for self-assessment will apply from 2028, so taxpayers within self-assessment and tax advisers will have that to look forward to. In theory, it sounds great, but there have been problems with MTD for VAT, so it is easy to see why advisors are not overly excited about MTD for self-assessment just yet.
There are consultations regarding stopping promoters of tax avoidance schemes, and tax advisors facilitating non-compliance, and using third-party data to 'make it easier to pay tax right first time', as well as on reforming behavioural penalties i.e. financial penalties for incorrect and false declarations to HMRC.
There will also be a new type of stock market, to allow trading if private company shares by employees, called PISCES, and information has been published about that.
So all in all, a quiet day for tax advisers in terms of what to communicate to clients, but behind the scenes, we are scanning all of the documents to bring you any news.