23 February 2024
Finance Act 2024 – Royal Assent
Following completion of the remaining House of Lords stages earlier this week, the Finance Bill received Royal Assent yesterday (22 February 2024) and has become Finance Act 2024. At the time of writing, the Act has not been published but it should appear here shortly. As the Lords do not amend Finance Bills, the Act’s contents will be unchanged from the reprinted version of the Bill that was passed by the House of Commons earlier this month.
OECD publishes Amount B report on transfer pricing approach for marketing and distribution activities
The OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework has published a transfer pricing report on Amount B of Pillar One. The report outlines a new process for pricing baseline marketing and distribution activities under the arm’s length principle in countries that opt to apply Amount B. All businesses that sell goods, regardless of size, are potentially in the scope of Amount B if they carry out suitable distribution activities. For further details, please see our alert.
Australia publishes revised exposure draft on public country-by-country reporting
The Australian government has released for consultation new draft legislation on public country-by-country (CbC) reporting for large multinationals that operate in Australia. The legislation would require the public release of certain tax and other information on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis for reporting periods starting on or after 1 July 2024. Under the revised draft, it is no longer proposed that separate country-by-country information will be published for all countries globally. Instead, data for Australia and a specified list of 41 other countries will be reported individually, with data for the rest of the world aggregated and reported together. The consultation period ends on 5 March 2024. Please see Deloitte Australia’s alert for further details.
Scottish income tax rates for 2024/25 agreed
The Scottish parliament has passed a statutory resolution setting the rates of income tax applicable to the non-savings non-dividend income of Scottish resident individuals for the tax year 2024/25 (6 April 2024 – 5 April 2025). The rates and bands approved by MSPs were those originally proposed by the Scottish government in its Budget of 19 December 2023, and therefore include the new ‘Advanced rate’ of 45% for income between £75,000 and £125,140, and the increase in the ‘Top rate’, applicable to income above £125,140, from 47% to 48%.
Council of the EU updates list of non-cooperative jurisdictions
On 20 February 2024, the Council of the European Union announced the conclusions of its latest review of the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. Four jurisdictions – The Bahamas, Belize, Seychelles, and Turks & Caicos Islands – have been removed from the main list of non-cooperative jurisdictions. The revised list now comprises 12 jurisdictions: American Samoa, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad & Tobago, the US Virgin Islands, and Vanuatu. The Council also approved and updated the ‘state-of-play’ document (Annex II) which reflects ongoing work and commitments made to the EU by further jurisdictions to reform their legislation to adhere to agreed tax good governance standards. Six jurisdictions have been removed from the latest iteration of Annex II after fulfilling earlier commitments: Albania, Aruba, Botswana, Dominica, Hong Kong, and Israel. Belize and Seychelles have been added to Annex II, which now comprises 10 jurisdictions in total. For further details, see here. The next revision of the list is scheduled for October 2024.
Company car advisory fuel rates from 1 March 2024
HMRC have announced the new advisory fuel rates for company cars applicable from 1 March 2024. The previous mileage rates, effective from 1 December 2023, can be used for up to one month from the date the new rates apply. Compared to the previous rates, the advisory fuel rates for all sizes of diesel engines have each decreased by 1p. The advisory fuel rates for petrol engines sized up to 2000cc have decreased by 1p each, and the petrol rate for larger engines has decreased by 2p. Rates for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are increased by 1p each for engine sizes up to 2000cc, and by 3p for larger engines. The advisory rate for fully-electric cars is unchanged at 9p per mile.
Northern Ireland: registration for the Import One Stop Shop
The Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) is an optional simplified VAT accounting scheme that can be used by Northern Ireland businesses to account for VAT on distance sales transactions. The scheme came into effect on 1 July 2021. A Northern Irish business can choose to register for the IOSS scheme to report and pay VAT on goods valued at £135 or less (low value goods) that are imported into the EU or Northern Ireland, and sold to consumers in the EU and/or Northern Ireland. At present, Northern Irish businesses are only able to register for the IOSS in an EU member state. From 1 March 2024, Northern Irish businesses will be able to register with HMRC for the Northern Ireland IOSS. (Businesses from outside the EU and Northern Ireland will in future be able to register through an intermediary, but the Northern Ireland IOSS is not yet available for intermediary registrations.) The Finance Act 2021, Section 95 and Schedule 18 (Distance Selling: Northern Ireland) (Appointed Day No. 2) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/130) bring the relevant legislation into force, and HMRC have published a collection of guidance on the IOSS, including guidance on registration, returns, and payment. A business can only register for one IOSS scheme; if a business is already registered for the IOSS scheme in an EU member state, it must cancel that registration before registering for the Northern Ireland scheme. VAT on sales of low value goods located in Great Britain must be accounted for on the normal UK VAT return, and VAT on goods sold by an online marketplace will be accounted for by the marketplace. (Contact: Jason Craig)
EMEA Dbriefs webcasts
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, will deliver the government’s Spring Budget 2024 on Wednesday 6 March 2024. The Spring Budget will be accompanied by the latest forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility for the UK’s economy. Please visit our Spring Budget page in the run up to the Budget for our coverage of key tax announcements.
There will be an EMEA Dbriefs webcast on Thursday 7 March 2024 at 12.00 GMT/13.00 CET, during which our panel of speakers will analyse the Spring Budget’s tax announcements.