Media and politics

The first full week of election campaigning since Parliament was dissolved has seen Labour back a new tax on multinationals and the Conservatives propose cuts to business rates for small firms. Ahead of the manifestos – most of which are expected next week – here is our round up of tax and related developments so far.

Cross-border Trade and Accounting was the topic of an adjournment debate on 30 October. Conservative Luke Graham, who was an accountant for Tesco and Marks and Spencer before becoming an MP, secured the debate and spoke about the development of accounting systems, Making Tax Digital and HMRC’s support for small and medium-sized businesses. He said he believed accountants can help with big social and environmental challenges and that it ‘may well be accountants who have the key to global Britain’.

MPs on the Treasury Committee have questioned HMRC bosses about the organisations’ culture, pay and conditions, as well as customer service levels, its approach to debt collection and the implementation of the 2019 loan charge. Inevitably the department’s Brexit preparations also loomed large at the hearing.

The challenges of managing a partly devolved income tax regime were the focus of CIOT’s fifth successive event at an SNP conference. Titled ‘Tax at Twenty’, the event provided delegates with the chance to hear from a panel comprised of politicians, a tax expert and a pollster tasked with reviewing the evolution of Scotland’s devolved tax journey twenty years on from its inception.

This is the second event held by CIOT in 2019 to consider the devolution of taxes to the Scottish Parliament. A link to the first of these - held in partnership with ICAS - can be found here.