Welcome to August 2019 News Update from Prestige Business Management
August 2019 News Update – featuring additional news developments from our newsletter series.
Welcome to August News Update – This month sees Brexit preparations roll out new EORI number scheme to help businesses trading with the EU, HMRC crackdown on Cryptocurrency announced, and over a million registrations for Making Tax Digital after the first deadline passes.
Brexit Preparations – VAT-registered firms to be automatically given EORI Numbers
The Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has announced a new scheme that could help businesses that trade frequently with the EU. According to HMRC:
“EORI numbers are a unique ID number allocated to businesses that enables them to be identified by Customs authorities when doing business with other traders.
More than 88,000 VAT registered companies across the UK will be allocated an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number in the next two weeks in order to keep trading with customers and suppliers in the EU after the UK has left.
72,000 companies have already registered for EORI numbers. With Brexit preparations accelerated under the new government, ministers are taking decisive action to speed up the rollout of the scheme to help ensure the smooth transit of goods.”
Over A Million Companies Have Signed-Up To MTD This Month!
Making Tax Digital’s latest deadline has passed and according to ICAEW over a million registration requests have been processed so far.
“Almost 90% of monthly filers and 76% of stagger group 1 quarterly filers signed up to MTD for VAT by the 7 August 2019 filing deadline. This means that approximately 5,000 monthly filers and 116,000 stagger group 1 quarterly filers had not signed up in time to meet the August deadline.
The Tax Faculty understands that approximately 200,000 businesses with turnover below the VAT threshold have signed up to MTD for VAT, alongside 40,000 monthly filers, 370,000 stagger group 1 quarterly filers and 303,000 stagger group 2 and 3 businesses that have signed up early. The total number of businesses within the scope of mandatory MTD is approximately 1.2m.
The limited statistics released by HMRC do not enable a full assessment of how many of these businesses have successfully filed their returns but the number of returns filed now exceeds 900,000.”
Cycle To Work Scheme £1,000 Cap Lifted
The Government’s Cycle to Work Scheme has had its £1,000 cap lifted. According to Cycle to Work Alliance the new developments will mean employees can acquire not only the latest cycle products but can also use the scheme to purchase e-bike technologies.
Cycle to Work Alliance states:
“In June, we told you that updated guidance for cycle to work schemes had been released. The main purpose of the update was to lift the existing £1,000 purchase price cap, meaning even more people would become regular cyclists and could afford higher-priced items like e-bikes.
As a founding member of the Cycle to Work Alliance (C2WA), we’ve been working towards an update like this for two years, in partnership with the Department for Transport (DfT), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and other members of the C2WA.
However, the specific guidance that’s been produced contains some ambiguous wording, making it difficult to act on under existing legislation. The key things you need to know:
- Cyclescheme is honouring C2WA’s recommendation to hold off on implementing the new guidance until these ambiguities have been cleared up.
- Cyclescheme is working with the C2WA and senior members of the DfT and FCA to find a clear and practical solution for our clients as soon as possible.
- In the meantime, our current scheme will continue to run and remains fully compliant, so neither you nor your employees need to do anything differently.
We know this delay may well be disappointing for you and your employees. No one is keener to get more people loving life in the saddle than we are. We’re working across the industry to achieve the change we all want as quickly as possible.”
HMRC To Go After Crypto Investors In New Crackdown
HMRC’s Crypto taskforce in partnership with the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority have already issued their final report on crypto technologies – these findings resulted in last October’s guidance notices on cryptocurrency.
HMRC have this month moved on and are requesting digital currency details from exchanges trading in the UK in order to better identify taxable activities to help avoid tax evasion.
“A task force made up of HM Treasury, FCA and the Bank of England issued its final report on cryptoassets in October 2018 and it was shortly after this that HMRC issued its guidance on the taxation of cryptocurrency.
HMRC has now followed up and has reportedly requested that digital currency exchanges provide information about customers’ names and transactions presumably in the hope of identifying tax evasion. Those people using digital currency exchanges should check if they have a tax liability to report and if so to make the necessary declaration before the taxman comes knocking.”
