AAT public affairs and public policy activities: September 2019

Every month AAT highlights some of the key public affairs and public policy activities undertaken on behalf of our 140,000 members.

Below you'll find some key highlights for September 2019.

If you'd like any further information about any of these issues please contact Phil Hall, AAT Head of Public Affairs & Public Policy, via Twitter or via email.

AAT shortlisted for British Business Awards

AAT has been shortlisted for the Work/Life Balance Award at the prestigious British Business Awards 2019.

This is for AAT’s (and primarily our HR team’s) work on flexible working arrangements which means more than two thirds of AAT staff now work flexibly.

Labour Party Conference 2019

AAT Director of Strategy and Professional Standards Adam Harper and Phil Hall, our Head of Public Affairs and Public Policy, attended the Labour Party Conference in Brighton last month. Between them they participated in more than 30 fringe events on a diverse range of topics from climate change, gender, diversity and responsible business to apprenticeships, skills, upskilling and reskilling and of course, the usual staples of tax policy, tax evasion and tax avoidance.

Away from the fringe meetings, the Labour Party confirmed a number of policies in line with AAT members' views, for instance:

• a £10 living wage irrespective of age
• action on ethnicity/gender/executive pay
• free vocational, technical and adult education
• a challenging Green New Deal.

An update on the Conservative Party Conference will be provided next month.

Victory for AAT and construction industry in securing VAT delay

On 6 September the government confirmed that the introduction of the domestic VAT reverse charge for construction services will be delayed for a period of 12 months until 1 October 2020.

The VAT reverse charge makes the payment of VAT the responsibility of the customer rather than the supplier, which is an enormous change to the system.

Given the magnitude of the change, short notice and general lack of awareness as to what this means in practice, AAT had previously backed the National Federation of Builders and Federation of Master Builders in calling for a delay to its implementation. 

We were therefore very pleased that the government took these concerns on board and agreed to a one-year delay. PBC Today covered the story, as did Scottish Construction Now, and some regional media covered our response too.

Further information about the delay is available from HMRC.

Overseas residential property investors: questions raised in House of Lords

Last month, crossbench peer Lord Bird, founder of The Big Issue, tabled some questions in the House of Lords relating to AAT’s concerns that the new Stamp Duty surcharge for overseas property investors has been watered down.

This follows action from backbench Labour and Plaid Cymru MPs on the subject earlier this year, and Labour Shadow Treasury and Housing team members taking the matter up with the Chancellor.

The dilution of the original proposals for a 3% surcharge to a mere 1% surcharge mean an £80 million reduction in promised funding for programmes to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness.

AAT’s views on the subject will also feature in the next edition of The Big Issue.

Scottish tourism tax

In a recent consultation submission, AAT recommended that the Scottish government ignore calls for a flat rate, per-person tourist fee and instead consider introducing a 2.5% tax on the overall cost of accommodation.

AAT’s proposal is more progressive as it means those staying in a youth hostel will not be paying the same rate as those in five-star accommodation, as well as easier to enforce: it doesn’t require hotels to record how many people are staying in each room, etc.

We also recommended the government avoid imposing day visitor charges as these can have a very negative impact on tourism, as recently demonstrated in Amsterdam as well as the Balearic Islands.

An interview on BBC Radio Scotland to explain our proposals was followed by further media coverage in Daily Business, Hotel Owner Magazine, Accountancy Today and Arts Professional as well as Taxation magazine.

It also resulted in engagement with half a dozen Edinburgh City Councillors of differing political persuasions, a similar number of Members of the Scottish Parliament, councillors from the Highlands, the leader of Cambridge Council and an exchange with the chief executive of the Scottish Tourism Alliance (who oppose a tourism tax in any form, on any visitors). 

This has further helped establish AAT as a thought leader in Scotland, ensured the views of our 1,800 members north of the border – including almost 100 Licensed Accountants – are represented, and will hopefully help to deliver a fairer and more effective tax than would otherwise have been the case.

The consultation closes on 2 December 2019, so a further update is likely in 2020. For more information, read last month’s AAT Comment article on the subject.

Parliamentary engagement

AAT engaged with more than 20 politicians in September, from the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP parties.

AAT consultations, calls for evidence and inquiry responses

In September, AAT responded to consultations on OPBAS fees and to an FRC consultation on ethics in the auditing sector as well as the Scottish tourism tax.

AAT’s submissions on a diverse range of topics are available on the public policy work page.

Other events, meetings and engagement

• Together with representatives from the HR team, we attended the Brokerage “graduation” event for our recent summer internships.
• We attended the Accountancy Age Roadshow in Westminster which had a strong technology focus and included panel discussions with two AAT Digital Advisory Panel members.
• We met with Salma Shah, former special advisor to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Raoul Ruparel, former special advisor at 10 Downing Street, and Fraser Raleigh, former special advisor to the Ministry of Justice.
• We attended the Chartered Institute of Tax event on technology and tax.
• We met with John McTernan, former political secretary to Tony Blair, and discussed AAT’s thoughts on net zero carbon.
• We attended a Digital Transformation breakfast with digital directors from a number of FTSE 100 firms (BT, TUI) and a FTSE 250 firm (FirstGroup).
• AAT Technical Consultation Manager Aleem Islan’s commentary on an HMRC VAT tribunal case appeared in Accountancy Daily.