This page has now been archived - it is no longer updated.

New tax news can be found on the 2002/3 TaxNews pages here

Note - some of the links listed below may no longer function because of the age of some news items.

Tax News Archive - 2001/2:

• Date:April 17, 2002 - Chancellor delivers 2002 Budget
  The Chancellor has just delivered the 2002 Budget - a month after its usual date. Get all the latest detail on the contents of the Budget from the HM-Treasury website, or follow the other links we have provided to the Budget from our links pages

• Date:February 25, 2002 - Widower looses discrimination case against the Revenue
  A widower who took the Revenue to court in a test case over its failure to grant him the same tax allowance as it would have given to a widow, has lost his case in the High Court, reports TaxAid - the charity which started the campaign for equal treatment. This case means more than 200,000 men who have been denied the same tax concessions rights as widows when their spouse died will be left between £400-600 worse off than may have been the case. This case may not end here however, as there is still a possible challenge to be made to the European Court under the new Human Rights legislation. Read more details on the TaxZone.co.uk website, or on the Taxaid website.

• Date:February 25, 2002 - Revenue release SA statistics for 2001/2
  The Inland Revenue have released details of forms submitted on time by the end of January fo the 2001/2 tax year (2000/1 figures in brackets).
  Returns issued and due back by 31/1/02 = 9,113,000 (9,022,000)
  Returns received = 8,253,000 (8,131,000)= 90.6%(90.2%)
  Returns received over the Internet by deadline = 75,449 (increase of 94% on last year's 38,981)
  A slight improvement - but still lots of nice penalties to be paid on the remaining 9.4% (857,000) of returns that should have been submitted and weren't! At an automatic rate of £100 for each late submission that is £8.5million pounds (assuming all these forms produce tax that is owed of course rather than null returns).

• Date:February 18, 2002 - NAO report on Hm Customs and Excise
  The UK National Audit Office has reported the results of their examination of HM Customs and Excise’s systems to ensure they provide an effective check on the assessment, collection and allocation of tax revenue during the year ending 31 March 2001. The report includes details of measures taken by HM Customs & Excise to combat fraud. The Government published details of its strategy for tackling indirect tax fraud in November 2001. Customs have built on their first strategy on Tobacco Smuggling (March 2000), by publishing estimates of the levels of fraud for other indirect taxes, concerning alcohol, oils and part of the VAT system, missing trader intra-Community fraud. This approach has six components: estimating the size of the problem; establishing the nature and economics of the fraud; responding to the fraud with the most effective means of tackling it; establishing outcomes; strengthening controls; and monitoring outcomes. Customs are currently working on their strategies for tackling fraud in all the remaining indirect taxes.
  As a result of their new approach, Customs' estimates to date suggest that a sum of between £6.4 billion and £7.3 billion (6.3 per cent to 7.1 per cent of the tax collected in 2000-01) has not been collected as a result of fraud. In addition the Department have not yet completed their assessment of fraud in VAT, which is Customs’ largest tax stream, representing 57 per cent of total receipts.
  Download the full report from the NAO website (pdf 269k)

• Date:February 18, 2002 - IR35 Research details
  Are you interested in the controversal IR35 (private service company) developments over the last year (an excellent topic for a dissertation/essay for example) - then a good place to start is the Inland Revenue website pages on the subject - closely followed by the Taxzone.co.uk site pages.

• Date:February 18, 2002 - Draft Regulation setting certain NIC rates for 2002-03 published
  HM Treasury has laid a draft of the Regulation which will uprate various NIC rates and thresholds for the tax year beginning 6 April 2002.
  The Order provides for the following changes to the NIC rules:
  * the rate of secondary Class 1 contributions will be reduced from 11.9% to 11.8%;
  * the small earnings exception for Class 2 contributions is increased from £3,955 to £4,025;
  * the rate for Class 3 contributions is increased from £6.75 to £6.85
  * the lower profits threshold for Class 4 contributions is increased from £4,535 to £4,615
  * the upper profits threshold for Class 4 contributions is increased from £29,900 to £30,420
  Source: ICAEW Tax Faculty Taxline - see their news item for more details.

• Date:February 18, 2002 - National Audit Office reports on revenue departments
  The National Audit Office (NAO) has published its annual review of the accounts of the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. In 2000/2001 (the period covered by the report) the Revenue collected £148.7 billion in tax and duties. This compares with £139.3 billion in the previous year. The majority of tax collected is, as in previous year, income tax and in the relevant year income tax accounted for 68% of the total tax take. Next, but a long way behind, came corporation tax (22%). Capital gains tax accounted for just 5.5% of the total tax take but this is a small increase on the 5% collected in the previous year.
  Source: ICAEW Tax Faculty Taxline - see their news item for more details.

• Date:January 29, 2002 - Chancellor Announces Budget 2002 Date
  The Chancellor announced this week that the Budget will be presented this year to Parliament on 17th April. This is a month after the usual date, which is traditionally early in March, due to the personal circumstances of the Chancellor and the work needed to be completed now before the Budget can be delivered. The knock-on implications of this change of date affect a variety of things however. See the Revenue's website for further details.

• Date:December 13, 2001 - Customs and Excise plays Srooge at Christmas
  In a rather Scrooge-like manner just before Christmas, Customs and Excise have chosen the topic of a new method of taxing spirits for their lastest Business Brief (20/01).
  What is being proposed is a consultation on the costs, benefits and practicalities of introducing a tax stamps system for spirits, designed to assist in the identification of smuggled products and to help secure the collection of revenue. If the Government decides to proceed with a tax stamps system, new penalties would also be introduced for those found dealing illegally in un-stamped goods.
  A tax stamp is a special stamp that would be issued by Customs to producers and importers of spirit products. The issue of the stamp would form the basis for paying excise duty.
  Source: ICAEW Tax Faculty taxline - see their news item for more details.

• Date:December 1, 2001 - Pre-Budget Report
  See the tax links pages for details of the contents of the Pre-Budget Report 2002

• Date:November 8, 2001 - Tax fine revenue grows dramatically
  The amount of revenue raised for the Treasury through fines imposed by Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue for late completion of tax forms and late payment of tax owed in the last 10 financial years has rocketed, new figures reveal. Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo, has published tables showing the revenue raised by Revenue and Customs from late filing penalties and late payment surcharges over the last ten years. In 2000 alone this included £63,438,000 in penalties and 50,943,000 in self assessment surcharges.
  Source: TaxZone.co.uk - see their news item for more details.

• Date:November 8, 2001 - Business costs set to rise after European VAT ruling
  UK business are facing a major cost increase following a European Court of Justice ruling yesterday that may prevent companies from reclaiming VAT on business expenses paid by their staff. A case brought by the European Commission against the Dutch Government may force the UK in to stopping VAT-registered traders reclaiming the VAT paid on staff expenses. Stuart Hindle, of KPMG, said the ruling implied that companies would only be able to reclaim VAT if they paid the expense directly or had a supplier’s invoice showing that they had done so. Where employees paid the expense and then submitted personal receipts in expense claims, the VAT would be lost.
  Source: TaxZone.co.uk - see their news item for more details.

• Date:November 8, 2001 - Pre-Budget Statement date announced
  The date for the Pre-Budget Speech has been announced this week - it will be given on the 27th November.
  Source: TaxZone.co.uk

• Date:October 19, 2001 - Ernst & Young Launch Budget 2002 website
  Despite the next UK Budget being more than five months away yet, Ernst & Young have already just launched their Budget 2002 website. See the site, and follow the developments towards the budget, by visiting their webpages at http://www.ey.com/global/gcr.nsf/uk/budget.

• Date:Sept 30, 2001 - Taxstudent.com launches its UK taxation website
  Taxstudent.com is a website containing taxation materials to be used in support of tax education. It is pleased to operate in conjunction with AccountingEducation.com Ltd and publisher Thomson Learning to provide a website linked to their textbook - Taxation: Policy and Practice by Andy Lymer and Dora Hancock - a leading UK Taxation textbook. This website provides users with up to date information on the issues currently facing the UK tax system. It provides a solid foundation for tax students to develop their learning of this topic. This information includes study materials, self test questions, worked answers to textbook questions, a tax news service, a current rate card, an extensive Uk tax links list and other resources.

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