Indirect tax news from the past week
21/07/2025
HMRC annual report and accounts
On 17 July 2025, HMRC published their annual report and accounts 2024 to 2025. HMRC reported total tax revenues of £875.9 billion for 2024/25, a 3.9% increase from 2023/24. VAT revenues were £178.5 billion, an increase of £13.0 billion, 7.9%, compared to 2023/24. HMRC estimate that the yield from its compliance activities in 2024/25 was £48.0 billion, up 14.9% from 2023/24 and £2.6 billion higher than their target. There are plans to increase the tax yield through investment in HMRC, with 5,500 new compliance officers and a focus on technology transformation including the use of AI, with the aim of bringing in an additional £7.5 billion per year by 2029/30. Customer service remains an area of focus for improvement. Amongst other sections, the report includes the Tax Assurance Commissioner’s report, which summarises HMRC’s approach to tax disputes and dispute resolution, including updated statistics and commentary. HMRC also published a number of supplementary technical notes with the annual report, including a large business compliance: technical note, which looks at the results of HMRC’s Large Business Directorate in 2024/25. This note includes compliance yield statistics, the length of time taken to resolve enquiries, Customer Compliance Managers, Business Risk Review + and uncertain tax treatment. (Contact: Andrew Clarke)
UK Trade Strategy
At the end of June, the government announced its Trade Strategy. Deloitte UK’s Tax and Trade Policy Group has now published an article on What’s in the UK’s new trade strategy?, highlighting that the strategy provides a clearer framework for business to be able to plan for future policy development. While not radically altering the UK’s trade policy model, the strategy does sharpen the focus on core economic goals. For exporters and businesses with complex supply chains, the emphasis on digital customs systems, targeted market access and regulatory cooperation may yield commercial gains. The article suggests that businesses assess how they are positioned to benefit from upcoming changes. (Contact: Ciaran Bridges)
EU VAT Committee guidelines
The latest guidelines issued by the EU VAT Committee on 15 July 2025 include a number of updates from the previous (July 2024) edition. (The Committee’s guidelines are not binding on EU Member States.) Included are guidelines on sales of ‘skins’ (digital assets) in a secondary market (page 320). The VAT Committee almost unanimously (all but one to three of EU member states) agreed that the supply of skins qualifies as an electronically supplied service for VAT purposes. The VAT Committee also issued guidelines on the electronic invoicing rules applicable under the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) package, particularly around requirements for non-established businesses (page 321). The European Commission has also published its 2025 eInvoicing Country Factsheets, which set out information on e-invoicing policies and practices in EU Member States and European Economic Area (EEA) countries. (Contact: Donna Huggard)
Dbriefs webcasts
The Dbriefs programme is taking a break over the summer. Why not take this time to catch up on some of our recent webcasts on demand that you may have missed? These include: Addressing the tax impacts of sustainability in the supply chain and UK tax update - July. Please visit our Dbriefs website for more information.