Chartered Accountants Ireland

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ISSUE DATE: 11 December 2017

TAX NEWS

Ireland

Are you missing a tax refund?

Approximately €9.8 million in tax refunds have been cancelled by Revenue. At a recent TALC meeting, Revenue told us that due to missing nominated bank account details for income tax refunds for mandatory e-filing cases, 4,300 refunds for 2015 (€6.4m) and 1,800 refunds for 2016 (€3.4m) have been cancelled. These refunds need to be re-activated. Read more >>>

Tax Appeal cases for employee tax credit

Two appeals before the Tax Appeals Commission concerned the entitlement to the employee tax credit against tax arising on the increased old age contributory pension payment on behalf of the taxpayer’s spouse. Both cases were found in favour of the taxpayer. We requested guidance from Revenue on the options available to taxpayers who may wish to “lodge claims” based on the determinations. Read more >>>

Finance Bill 2017 additional Stamp Duty measure

Following Seanad Committee Stage last week, a new section 62 “Shares deriving value from immovable property situated in State” has been inserted into Finance Bill 2017. This new stamp duty anti-avoidance section applies the 6 percent stamp duty rate on the disposal of certain shares deriving their value from non-residential property. Generally the rate on shares is one percent. Read more >>>

Final ten days to book Chartered Tax Consultant 2018

With an application closing date of 21 December 2017, this is almost your last opportunity to apply for Chartered Tax Consultant starting in January 2018. Our professional tax qualification is aimed at and developed for accountants. We teach in a highly practical way, helping you apply your new skills and knowledge straight away. In just one year you can boost your consultancy skills, learn the major tax heads, deal with tax impacts on areas of business including international tax and accounting for tax under IFRS. Contact Amy today to see how you can start in January and finish up in December with your new qualification.

In the media

Commenting in the Irish Examiner, Institute President Shauna Greely called for a sense of urgency and clarity to be injected into the next phase of Brexit talks. The President’s full statement is detailed in Brexit Bites below. In an analysis piece in the Sunday Business Post, Brian Keegan says that while Friday’s Brexit communication is a very welcome political solution, businesses should continue to plan for the reintroduction of customs controls and tariffs post Brexit.

Don’t be caught out by planned downtime

Will you be using HMRC online services in the coming weeks? Don’t be caught out by the planned downtime to some services. Read more >>>

The trust registration service – update from HMRC

We’ve carried several items recently on the Trust registration service, this week we bring you news of further updated guidance and advice from HMRC which confirms that for 2016/17 only HMRC will not impose a penalty if the trust is not registered by 31 January 2018 but is registered no later than 5 March 2018. Read more >>>

Northern Ireland Corporation tax regime amendments

The UK Government announced at Autumn Budget 2017 that it remains committed to the Northern Ireland Corporation Tax regime on the same terms as before, i.e. “once a restored Executive has demonstrated that its finances are on a sustainable footing”. Subject to this, in 2018-19, the government will consider an announcement on implementing the regime. Read more >>>

Corporation tax – do you need to submit an amended return?

HMRC have now published guidance on amending certain corporation tax (CT) returns for accounting periods ending between 8 March and 16 November 2017 that were filed before 16 November 2017. Amended returns may be needed due to changes to corporation tax legislation enacted in the Finance (No.2) Act 2017 which have retrospective effect. Read more >>>

This week’s UK tax tidbits, 11 December 2017

Updated guidance on the reform of corporate loss relief and a briefing paper on the VAT registration threshold feature this week. Read more >>>

International

Ireland meets OECD requirements on exchange of Tax Rulings

The OECD has released the first analysis of individual countries' progress in spontaneously exchanging information on tax rulings in accordance with Action 5 of the BEPS package of measures.

ECOFIN approves a black list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) approved and published an EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions in taxation matters at a meeting on 5 December in Brussels. ECOFIN also discussed digital tax and adopted new rules for VAT on e-commerce. Read more >>>

Brexit

Brexit Bites

In a significant breakthrough on Friday, the UK and EU are ready to move on to trade negotiations after agreement was reached on the Irish border and other issues. Negotiations were hailed as “difficult” and UK negotiator David Davis raised some eyebrows over the weekend when he sent signals that the UK wasn’t really committed to what it signed up for. In other news, Chartered Accountants Ireland is calling for a sense of urgency and clarity to be injected into the next phase of talks to give businesses much needed certainty. See below for more on this story. Read more >>>

Brexit: “Businesses can’t work with false deadlines”

Responding to Friday’s announcement, Chartered Accountants Ireland is calling for a sense of urgency and clarity to be injected into the next phase of trade talks.
Read the full press release >>>