by Jon Richardson Partner +44 (0)7764 132134 More articles by Jon The dust has barely settled since the Chancellor's move in September to increase National Insurance contributions, and businesses are still readying themselves for the corporation tax hike set out in the Spring Budget. So it seems unlikely that further blockbuster tax changes will be on the cards on 27 October. Instead, the Comprehensive Spending Review and latest economic forecasts will take centre stage, giving the Chancellor and the country a clearer picture of the strength of the post-pandemic economy. We can still expec ..read more

by Kerstine Rencourt Partner +44 (0)7841 468690 More articles by Kerstine Prior to joining PwC, I was the Tax and Stats Global Process Owner (GPO) for a major multinational - and there weren’t many of us around.  It was rare that I’d meet another, but how things change. In the last year alone, I’ve helped to draft several new job descriptions for Tax GPOs in the FTSE100. The emergence of this role will help businesses transform how they work, just as GPOs in Record to Report, Procure to Pay and Order to Cash have done before them. To be effective, a GPO needs to own their processes en ..read more

by Rohit Patiar Tax Partner, Innovation Incentives Group +44 (0)7710 283056 More articles by Rohit by Rachel Moore Partner, R&D and patent box specialist +44 (0)7841 561935 More articles by Rachel Innovation is critical to economic growth and prosperity. The Government has long recognised that a competitive R&D tax credit scheme is an important driver of its ambition for the UK to become a global leader in science and innovation and achieve its target to raise total investment in research and development to 2.4% of UK GDP by 2027. Earlier this year, HMRC opened a wide ranging con ..read more

by Chrissie Freear Senior Manager, PwC United Kingdom +44 (0) 7808 105551 More articles by Chrissie Research & Development (R&D) tax credits are government incentives available to companies investing in advancing technological or scientific capabilities. While filing claims often falls to a claimant’s tax team, the key to ensuring claims are optimised and robust is the assessment of qualifying R&D activities by a company’s ‘competent professional’. To help ensure R&D activities are correctly assessed, we’ve set out three things claimants should consider: 1. Who is a ‘compet ..read more

by Vicky Bradford Director, PwC United Kingdom +44 (0)7725 633026 More articles by Vicky Capital investment in software and enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology can be extremely costly for businesses. However, the new tax super-deduction could see real benefits to businesses about to embark on a finance transformation journey. Unveiled in Rishi Sunak's March Budget to aid the UK's recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19), there is now an opportunity for capital investment on intangible fixed assets relating to software and ERP technology to qualify for the super-deduction. This could ..read more

by Alex Clifford Director, PwC United Kingdom +44 (0)7843 371211 More articles by Alex How do you unlock value from your tax data? What skills and tools are needed? And if your organisation can do this, what is the pot of gold at the end of the data rainbow? The most common way to unlock value from data is by combining data sources and applying specialist knowledge. If I take, for example, financial fixed asset data, combine it with asset life cycle management data and have a capital allowances specialist review it, I can make better capital allowance deductions. If I combine investment tra ..read more

by Vicky Bradford Director, PwC United Kingdom +44 (0)7725 633026 More articles by Vicky In recent months, we have seen a real increase in tax functions looking for support around ERP implementation - particularly the move to cloud ERP (S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion). This has been prompted by a number of reasons, such as the need to replace and decommission older, on premise systems or the need for greater insight to drive faster, better data-driven decisions. For any tax team setting out on an ERP transformation, I believe there are five top tips: 1. Understand your current state Know what you ..read more

by Lucibeth Hammond Senior Manager, Indirect Tax +44 (0) 7718 979297 More articles by Lucibeth Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT entered phase two as of 1 April, 2021. And that’s good news – or it can be – for businesses that grasp the opportunity to improve systems and processes for VAT. Since 2019, UK businesses have been required to store VAT records digitally, and submit VAT returns to HMRC via Application Programming Interface (“API”) enabled software. In this next phase, businesses must have digital links between their digital records and submission of their VAT return. With the 2021 ..read more

by Alex Clifford Director, PwC United Kingdom +44 (0)7843 371211 More articles by Alex We operate in a world where everyone wants your data. Apps, websites, social networks - wherever you look data is being collected, analysed and more often than not, monetised. Data has become the air organisations breathe, to make better business decisions, understand customers better, drive efficiencies and model future trends. And like the air we breathe, quality is vital. Good quality data that an organisation can trust is vital and makes a significant difference to the health of a business. Chief Data ..read more

by Kerstine Rencourt Partner +44 (0)7841 468690 More articles by Kerstine A good tax function is not a “nice to have”. It can literally mean the difference between being able to do business or not. Loss of license to operate...now that tends to sharpen the senses. With the increasing digital requirements from Governments (such as eReporting & eDelivery notes) in some countries you can't even move goods out of your own warehouse to your own customers if you don't meet specific requirements. So, muddling along with poor quality data and an army of spreadsheets is no longer a viable long ..read more