HMRC will be publishing a new guidance manual to cover the implementation of Multinational Top-up Tax and Domestic Top-up Tax in the UK and, over the last two years, have been publishing draft content for this manual in tranches for consultation. Four separate tranches have been published on 15 June 2023, 21 December 2023, 12 September 2024 and 28 January 2025. On 9 June 2025, HMRC provided brief updates to confirm that consultation responses have been reviewed and are being reflected in the HMRC guidance manual where appropriate. In the introduction to the consultation on the fourth tranche of draft guidance, HMRC stated that “the guidance manual will be published in full in late spring” so we would expect to see this shortly.
HMRC provide brief update on progress of draft UK guidance on Pillar Two
Scottish Building Safety Levy Bill introduced into Parliament
Following earlier agreement to devolve powers to the Scottish Government, on 5 June 2025, the Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill was introduced into the Scottish Parliament. The Bill will seek to raise revenue to fund Scotland's Cladding Remediation Programme. It is expected to apply to new residential development and redevelopment of existing buildings into residential accommodation. The day after the Bill was introduced a response to the earlier consultation on the proposed operation of the levy was also published. The Bill is now expected to work its way through the Scottish Parliament in the normal way.
OECD releases consolidated text of the Common Reporting Standard
The OECD adopted the Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, also referred to as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), in February 2014 and it has subsequently been widely implemented worldwide. A number of amendments to the CRS were adopted by the OECD in August 2022 following a comprehensive review. On 2 June 2025, the OECD published an “unofficial consolidated text of the CRS, incorporating the amendments made, resulting from the comprehensive review of the Standard”. No further changes were released at this time – the intention was purely to provide more user-friendly text for stakeholders.
European Economic Outlook – Spring 2025
KPMG in the UK has published its European Economy forecast for June 2025 providing forecasts for GDP growth, inflation and the ongoing impact of US tariffs.