There is no one who can provide certainty of what will happen as Brexit approaches, and entire EU Expat communities are among those who wait with baited breath as we head towards 29th March.

HMRC has recently sent tens of thousands of letters to UK taxpayers, stating that they have information regarding their offshore income or gains. This is a result of recent information exchange agreements with more than 100 countries over the past 2 years, and includes data sourced from financial institutions in countries once regarded as tax havens. The letters originate from the Risk and Intelligence Service Offshore department, who ask individuals to disclose to them any additional liabilities, or to state whether there are none.

Why not “A Common Understanding”?  Well, because when it comes to cost sharing, a common understanding is all too rare.

We are now coming to the end of the 3rd full tax year of operating the Payrolling Benefits scheme since its introduction by HMRC back in April 2016. This scheme brought flexibility to employers in reporting employee benefits by providing an option to process them through payroll on a real time basis rather than submitting P11D forms in July after the end of the tax year.

The continued ambiguity surrounding Brexit is an issue that is affecting many different businesses in a variety of different ways, and the international tax implications of Brexit should also be considered.

In today’s world of disruption and fast pace change, it can be a big ask to put the brakes on and spend time and effort developing a strategy.  On top of that, strategy often gets a bad rap.  All too often being trumped by culture and the strategy document left to gather dust in the CEO's office or a hidden corner of the corporate website.