The government legislated in Finance Act 2021 to apply tax conditionality to licence applications for taxi and private hire drivers, private hire vehicle operators and scrap metal dealers. The legislation in the Finance Act will come into effect on 4 April 2022 in England and Wales and places new obligations on licence applicants to complete a tax check and on licensing bodies to confirm that an applicant has completed a tax check before making a decision on the application.   

In line with the government’s tax consultation framework, HMRC has published draft regulations for technical consultation. The draft regulations contain administrative details about how the tax check process will operate; in particular, how certain actions must be carried out and when certain actions take place.  

The draft regulations can be viewed here Draft regulations: tax conditionality for the hidden economy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). 

The draft legislation only applies to England and Wales.

The technical consultation closes on 18 November 2021. The purpose of the technical consultation is to make sure that the regulations will work as intended.  Comments should be emailed to: isbc.compliancepolicy@hmrc.gov.uk 

IoL Tax Conditionality Webinar, Friday 22nd October 2021

We were delighted to host a collaborative webinar on Friday 22nd October, which focused on the practical implementation of tax conditionality and the tax check – what people will need to do and how.

This was a collaborateive event with HMRC, LPHCA, NPHTA and BMRA.  Confirmed panellists / speakers:

• Jamie Horton, HMRC
• Sue Riley, HMRC
• Cathy Smith, HMRC
• Luke Jones, HMRC
• Jim Button, Institute of Licensing (IoL) (Chair)
• Steve Wright MBE, Licensed Private Hire Car Assoc. (LPHCA);
• David Lawrie, National Private Hire and Taxi Assoc. (NPHTA);
• Antonia Grey, British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA); and
• Gary Jacobs, Eazitax (tax advisor/accountant)

Discussion Topics included:

• The requirements and process (including prototypes of the online process)
• FAQs
• Where to go for more advice and help with tax compliance

The webinar was recorded, so you can still watch the session via the link below.  There are also links to the presentation used and other links which were referred to within the session, and include guidance for licence applicants.

Please be aware, that the screenshots of the online system within the presentation are prototypes and the final online system may not be exactly the same, although we are told that any changes will be minor.

Recording and Presentation

Recording: https://youtu.be/fTXtjgIJjrU

Presentation: https://www.instituteoflicensing.org/media/wf3ffabl/iol-tax-conditionality-webinar-fv.pdf

LINKS:

Guidance for licence applicants

Guidance for licensing authorities

Communications toolkit

HMRC Consultation on the draft regulations(closes 18 November)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-and-support-for-the-hmrc-personal-tax-account

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/use-hmrcs-business-tax-account