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Following the launch of the Advance Tax Certainty Service in July 2026, the government has announced that the entry threshold for qualifying expenditure will be reduced from £1 billion to £300m. The Advance Tax Certainty Service is intended to provide binding certainty on how tax rules will apply to major investment projects in the UK before significant investment takes place.
A change will also be made to ensure that a penalty for failure to provide information will only be charged where the failure relates to a clearance that has been issued.
The scope of the service will be reviewed after at least one year of operation and the government intends to make changes to further improve the service.
Businesses planning UK investment projects with qualifying expenditure that exceeds the lowered £300m threshold.
The threshold reduction and penalty change will have effect from 4 November 2026.
The reduction in the entry threshold is welcome. Businesses have suggested that the existing £1 billion threshold is too high and the reduction will open up the service to a broader range of UK investment projects.