Reject, refuse or ignore any requests – it is OK to do this – only criminals will try and rush or panic people Search ‘scams’ on Gov.UK for information surrounding how to recognise genuine HMRC contact, and how to avoid and report scams
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Forward any suspicious emails purporting to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and any texts to 60599 Individuals should contact their bank immediately if they suspect they’ve fallen victim to a scam and also report it to Action Fraud
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HMRC publishes Agent Update 80 27 October 2020
The latest Agent Update issue has been published by HMRC, and includes articles that discuss employees working from home because of COVID-19, an update on Top Slicing Relief (TSR) on life insurance policy gains and the VAT reverse charge on building and construction services – delayed introduction. The update is aimed at tax agents and advisers with the purpose of providing them with the latest news and guidance. There are many more articles included in the Update so it is advisable to read the whole issue.
Employees working from home
Employees asked to work from home due to coronavirus may find that they incur extra household expenses. In scenarios where their employer hasn’t reimbursed them, employees can claim tax relief on £6 per week if they’re working from home for all or part of the week. The relief can be claimed online, and employees will see their tax code adjusted, which will result in them paying a lower amount of tax.
Top Slicing Relief (TSR) on insurance policy gains
Any individuals affected from 2018-19 onwards should receive all of the relief they are entitled to, and HMRC is working to ensure that this happens.
Beneficial ordering
Personal allowances within the TSR calculation must be set, where possible, against other income in preference to the gain. This means that the personal allowance cannot be utilised twice in the tax year, which could result in too much relief being claimed. There is a note, however, that this is not a change to policy, and that the relief calculation has always applied to this method, otherwise it would produce excessive relief or give the relief to taxpayers not entitled to it. What the new measure means is that the treatment of the personal allowance is treated differently when calculating the TSR. There will be no changes to the calculation of any other relief, allowances or rates such as the Savings nil rates.
Impacts on each year
HMRC estimates that out of 45,000 customers who incur gains, 2,000 will benefit from these changes.
Outcomes of 2018-19 Auto Recovery / Manual re-work
The automated process for 2018-19 was run on 28 August 2020 and incorporated customer returns for 2019 received within HMRC up to nine months before the run date, e.g. Returns filed online from 28 November 2019 onwards. 2018-19 returns submitted under an exclusion are being manually reviewed and included customer returns for 2019 which had been received within HMRC up to nine months prior (returns received on 28 November 2019 and later). Where a change to the TSR is needed, they are being changed accordingly.
For returns that were received more than nine months ago, an amendment needs to be submitted to update the amount of TSR.
The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals
Payroll: need to know
cipp.org.uk
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