Prior to the General Election, the Finance Bill that was then before Parliament was passed in truncated form, to become the Finance Act 2017. The then Government indicated that if it was returned to power it would introduce another Finance Bill containing the provisions that had been omitted.
The new Government has now confirmed that intention, introducing a new Finance Bill ‘as soon as possible after the Summer recess’ containing the withdrawn provisions. This suggests it is likely to be published early September, but it may be deferred until October after the party conference season.
The announcement indicates that where the previous Finance Bill provided for the withdrawn provisions to take effect from the beginning of the 2017/18 tax year, or from another date that will now be prior to the introduction of the new Bill, these dates will continue to apply.
Some minor technical changes have been announced to the following provisions, to ensure that they operate as intended.
- hybrid and other mismatches;
- employment income provided through third parties;
- carried forward losses;
- inheritance tax on overseas property representing UK residential property;
- substantial shareholdings exemption;
- deemed domicile;
- corporate interest restriction.
In addition, significant changes have been made to the timetable for the introduction of the ‘Making Tax Digital (MTD)’ regime ‘to ensure businesses have plenty of time to adapt to the changes’.