Katharine Arthur, Partner and Head of Private Client, has featured in the This is Money feature of The Daily Mail. Katharine shared her thoughts on the news that thousands of investors could be forced to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on ‘fractional shares’ – where investors hold slices of shares rather than full ones – which have been put into ISAs through the investing platform Freetrade.

After losing the IR35 argument over Gary Lineker’s employment status, HMRC plans to appeal the decision made by the First Tier Tax Tribunal. Riocard Hoye, Senior Manager within the the Tax Disputes & Resolutions team, shares his outcome predictions within Accountancy Daily.

An increasingly common theme coming from HMRC is the removal of services in certain areas. This is so that they can prioritise delays in processing correspondence in other areas, and help speed up processes when dealing with backlogs for VAT registration and Option to Tax (OTT) applications. But what effect does this have on the property sector and what are the best ways to work around these changes?

Welcome to our quarterly roundup of Tax Disputes & Resolutions news, updates and more, from April to June 2023.

The UK payments industry, encompassing merchant acquiring, payment gateways, digital wallets, and payment service providers (PSPs), is a rapidly growing sector. The payment industry has experienced impressive growth in recent years, driven by technological advancements, shifting consumer preferences, and the rapid rise of e-commerce. As a result, the global payments market is expected to reach an astounding $8.94 trillion by 2027 (Grand View Research, 2020). Transaction volumes reached £97.1 billion in 2020, with an anticipated CAGR of 8.2% through 2025 (UK Finance, 2021).

However, a contraction was witnessed in the fintech landscape in 2023, with a 12% drop in global deal volume, compared to the previous year (Fintech Global, 2023). Nonetheless, the sector’s growth and innovation potential remains strong. Amidst heightened competition, accurate financial reporting and robust analysis emerged as the decisive differentiator for fintech firms.

As part of its latest attempts to keep up with the rapid expansion of the digital economy, HMRC is sending nudge letters to online content creators who make money or receive gifts for posting material on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Katharine Arthur, Partner and Head of Private Client, notes that the Government has made seemingly little progress towards simplifying the UK tax system, following the Chancellor’s decision to dissolve the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). She shares her thoughts within Accountancy Age.

In 2021, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released close to 12 million documents, allegedly involving offshore deals and transactions to conceal wealth; the so called, ‘Pandora Papers’.