28 March 2017

• The new £1 coin will enter circulation.  It is important that all round £1 coins are returned – either by being spent or directly to the bank – before 15 October 2017 when they lose their legal tender status.

1 April 2017

• New rules for VAT relief on substantially and permanently adapted motor vehicles for disabled wheelchair users will become effective. Further information can be found here.
• The VAT registration threshold will increase to £85,000 from £83,000 and the deregistration threshold will rise from £81,000 to £83,000, announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond as part of the spring Budget
• The rates of the National Minimum Wage will increase. The rate for workers aged 25 and over (the national living wage) increases from £7.20 to £7.50. The rates within the other age bands also increase.
• The Museums and Galleries Tax Relief, introduced in Finance Bill 2017, will become effective. The rates of relief will be set at 25% for touring exhibitions and 20% for non-touring exhibitions and the relief will be capped at £500,000 of qualifying expenditure per exhibition.

6 April 2017

• New off-payroll working rules for public sector employers come into force. While most charities will not be affected ‘Public sector’ has a wider definition than most might think and does include a number of charities. HMRC has opened the new Employment Status service for checking if a worker on a specific engagement, should be classed as employed or self-employed for tax purposes. See Susan Ball’s popular commentary for further background information. We are keen to build up a picture of how many CTG members are affected by these rules – if you are please let us know at info@charitytaxgroup.org.uk.
• Apprenticeship Levy payments will be collected by HMRC via PAYE from April meaning that organisations can expect to see funds in their apprenticeship service to be spent on apprenticeship training from May 2017. Affected charities can register for their own apprenticeship service account allow employers to financially manage their apprenticeship programme and help them to estimate their financial spend and recruit apprentices through training providers. We would welcome feedback from affected charity members (at info@charitytaxgroup.org.uk) on how your preparations for the Levy have progressed, and how much of your Levy contributions you expect to be able to utilise on training and how much will effectively be written off.
• The provisions in the Small Charitable Donations and Childcare Payments Act 2017, will be effective. Further information on the implications for the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme can be found here (including the extension to contactless payments, removal of the Gift Aid history requirements and changes to the community buildings rules). CTG has been working with HMRC officials to update the guidance, which we hope will be published before this date.
• The provisions in the Donations to Charity (Gift Aid Declarations) Regulations 2016 will be effective, in relation to gifts after this date. Currently a donor has to complete a Gift Aid declaration (GAD) each time they give to a new charity when giving through an intermediary. The Regulations introduce a new process that allows a donor to give permission to an intermediary to create GADs on their behalf for all subsequent donations made in that tax year.
• The Social Investment Tax Relief will be enlarged so that the amount of investment a social enterprise may receive under the SITR over its lifetime will be increased to £1.5 million. Full details are available here.
• Benefits-in-kind attracting tax and NIC advantages when they are provided under a salary-sacrifice scheme, are to be limited in many cases. Further details are available here.