Business Tax Briefing

Supreme Court permission to appeal updates – BlueCrest and Refinitiv

The Supreme Court’s website has been updated to indicate that the taxpayer has been granted permission to appeal in the ‘salaried members’ legislation case BlueCrest Capital Management (UK) LLP. The case concerns the rules, enacted in 2014, which, if three statutory conditions are all met, can lead to certain individual members of an LLP being treated for income tax and NIC purposes as an employee receiving a salary, rather than as a self-employed partner. No indicative date for the appeal hearing has been given.

The Supreme Court’s website has also been updated to indicate that permission to appeal the Court of Appeal decision in the judicial review case R (oao Refinitiv Limited and others) has been refused. The taxpayers were challenging the lawfulness of Diverted Profits Tax (DPT) notices for 2018 that HMRC had issued to them in relation to profits arising to an overseas group company on the disposal of intellectual property. The taxpayers argued that the ‘profit-split’ transfer pricing method that HMRC had sought to apply was unlawful as the calculation was inconsistent with the terms of an earlier advance pricing agreement (APA) agreed with HMRC covering the years 2008 to 2014 that used a ‘cost-plus’ method.

National Audit Office publishes report on collecting tax from wealthy individuals

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report titled Collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals. The report considers how much tax wealthy individuals pay, HMRC’s understanding of the risk of non-compliance by wealthy individuals, and HMRC’s work to tackle any such non-compliance. It finds that, while the wealthy contribute significant amounts of tax revenue to the exchequer, the complexity of their affairs creates challenges and presents opportunities for deliberate non-compliance. The report makes a number of recommendations, including that HMRC should develop a clear strategic vision and plan for tackling wealthy non-compliance, review their definition of the wealthy population, and consider how they can provide the public with greater transparency about the amount of tax that wealthy individuals pay.

Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System and tax advantaged share schemes

At Spring Statement 2025, HMRC published a technical note on the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES), a new type of stock market, which included an explanation of how PISCES trading windows interact with the tax advantaged share schemes Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) and Company Share Option Plans (CSOP). James Murray MP (Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury) has now issued a written ministerial statement providing further details on the interaction of PISCES and these share schemes. It confirms that the government will legislate in the next Finance Bill to allow employers, with their employees’ permission, to amend existing EMI and CSOP contracts to include a PISCES trading event as an exercisable event, without losing the tax advantages the schemes offer.

HMRC’s technical note has been updated for the announcement, as well as to provide further details on the interaction of PISCES with other tax advantaged share schemes and the application of the readily convertible assets rules. HMRC state that the statutory instrument providing the exemption for PISCES transactions from Stamp Duty and Stamp Duty Reserve Tax is expected to be laid shortly after the statutory instrument providing the legal framework for the PISCES Sandbox comes into force on 5 June 2025.

Advisory fuel rates

On 22 May 2025, HMRC published the new advisory fuel rates for company cars applicable from 1 June 2025. The previous mileage rates, effective from 1 March 2025, can be used for up to one month from the date the new rates apply. The rates for petrol engines sized 1401cc to 2000cc and over 2000cc, and for diesel engines sized 1600cc or less, have all decreased by 1 pence per mile. Rates for all other petrol and diesel engine sizes, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) engine rates, and the advisory rate for fully-electric cars, are unchanged from the previous quarter.

VAT late payment penalties – regulations

As announced in the Spring Statement 2025, the Finance Act 2021 (Increase in Schedule 26 Penalty Percentages) Regulations 2025 have been made to increase late payment penalties for VAT taxpayers (and income tax self-assessment taxpayers as they join Making Tax Digital). The new rates will be 3% (from 2%) of the tax outstanding where tax is overdue by 15 days, plus 3% (from 2%) where tax is overdue by 30 days, plus 10% (from 4%) per annum where tax is overdue by 31 days or more. The regulations will come into force on 31 May 2025. (Contact: Andrew Clarke)

EMEA Dbriefs webcasts

The next EMEA Dbriefs tax webcast is on Wednesday 4 June 2025 at 12.00 BST/13.00 CEST. In Are your reward practices fit for the future?, hosted by Katie Kenny, we will discuss reward programmes and the evolving expectations of the workforce. This webcast will focus on trends around understanding return on investment from reward arrangements, the use of pay transparency to enhance engagement including the role performance management plays in this, embedding a recognition culture and using wellbeing as an outcome, and the role employee share schemes play in engaging and motivating employees.