On 6 July, the government published 40 draft Finance Bill clauses and 8 schedules for consultation until 31 August 2018, together with explanatory notes and 14 consultation responses. Four items of legislation have immediate or retrospective effect, concerning: income tax exemptions for emergency vehicles; exemption for workplace charging of battery vehicles; amendments to corporate interest restriction rules; and corporation tax relief for carried-forward losses. See www.gov.uk/government/collections/finance-bill-2018-19

The closing date for comments on the draft legislation is 31 August 2018.

PERSONAL TAX

Abolition of receipt checking for benchmark scale rates and changes to overseas scale rates

As announced at Autumn Budget 2017, legislation in Finance Bill 2019 will remove the requirement for employers to check evidence, such as receipts, of the amounts spent when using benchmark scale rates to pay or reimburse their employees’ qualifying subsistence expenses when travelling for work. The measure also places the concessionary accommodation and subsistence overseas scale rates onto a statutory basis, for which there will also be no requirement for employers to check evidence of amounts spent. Employers will only be asked to ensure that employees are undertaking qualifying business travel for both sets of rates. This will have effect on and after 6 April 2019.

Income tax rent-a-room relief

Following consultation, legislation in Finance Bill 2019 will introduce an additional test of ‘shared occupancy’ that must be met in order for the taxpayer to be eligible for rent a room relief. The test will require the taxpayer to be physically present in the property, for all or …