This week’s weekly news for UK accountants opens with the Capital Goods Scheme changes, which take effect in a matter of days, on 29 July. Any client with capital spending plans on land, buildings or computer equipment needs this checked now. That is the story to act on first. Close behind it, the first MTD quarterly deadline for taxpayers with student loans lands on 7 August, and HMRC’s own data shows several hundred thousand of those affected have not yet registered.
HMRC’s crypto nudge letter campaign is also running hard, with nearly 65,000 letters issued in the last tax year alone. The fourth story moves more slowly but matters just as much: a proposed new criminal offence would make it easier for HMRC to prosecute for reckless rather than deliberate conduct, and the governance response to that starts well before any implementation date.
Here is the detail.
Capital Goods Scheme Reform Lands 29 July & Removes Computers Entirely
From 29 July 2026, the Capital Goods Scheme is being reformed on two fronts at once. Computers and computer equipment are removed from the scheme entirely, taking a category that has generated disproportionate administrative work for a comparatively small adjustment out of scope for good.
The land and buildings threshold is moving too, more than doubling from £250,000 to £600,000. That takes a meaningful number of smaller commercial property transactions out of the ten-year adjustment period altogether, though anyone already partway through an existing adjustment under the old threshold needs to check whether transitional rules affect their position.
Key facts:
- Computers and computer equipment removed from the CGS entirely
- Land and buildings threshold rises from £250,000 to £600,000
- Effective from 29 July 2026
Any client with capital expenditure on land, buildings or computer equipment planned around this date should have their VAT recovery position reviewed before, not after, the change lands.
MTD Student Loan Reporting Begins as the 7 August Deadline Closes In
Self-employed individuals and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 now face a new reporting mechanism under MTD. MTD software will now pull data from the Student Loans Company to identify which repayment plan applies, Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 or postgraduate.
That data feeds into an estimate of loan repayments built into each quarterly update. The estimate is not a bill. It is provisional, based on that period’s income alone, and carries no payment obligation.
The actual legal liability is only fixed when the annual Self Assessment return is filed, and it replaces the quarterly estimates at that point. Clients who assume the quarterly number is what they owe are working from the wrong figure.
Key facts:
- First mandatory quarterly deadline- 7 August 2026
- Quarterly loan repayment figures are estimates only, not payable
- Penalties for non-compliance waived in year one only
HMRC has confirmed several hundred thousand affected taxpayers, many unrepresented, have still not signed up. Any client above the threshold who has not registered needs contacting this week, not after the deadline passes.
New "Reckless" Offence Lowers the Bar for Criminal Tax Prosecution
The government is proposing a new criminal offence for making reckless untrue statements or declarations about direct tax. This lowers the threshold for prosecution, moving it down from deliberate conduct to recklessness.
That distinction matters. HMRC has always had to prove deliberate conduct was intentional. Recklessness is a considerably easier bar to meet, which is precisely why HMRC is expected to favour the new charge.
For accountants and the businesses they advise, the practical question shifts. It is no longer just whether a position was right, but whether the reasoning behind it was properly recorded at the time.
Key facts:
- New offence covers reckless, not just deliberate, untrue statements or declarations on direct tax
- Lowers the threshold for prosecution, since recklessness is easier for HMRC to prove than intent
- No implementation date has been confirmed
The response has to start before any implementation date is confirmed. Firms should be building the habit now, recording the technical reasoning behind a tax position when it is taken rather than reconstructing it later, and putting formal sign-off procedures around judgement calls instead of leaving them informal .Clients who cannot show how a position was reached, not just what it was, are the ones most exposed once this becomes law.
Crypto Nudge Letters Surge to Nearly 65,000 as HMRC Targets Digital Assets
HMRC issued 64,982 nudge letters to crypto investors in the 2024-25 tax year. Two years earlier, in 2022-23, it sent none. The scale of that increase says more about where HMRC’s attention now sits than any single figure could.
Crypto now accounts for 62.4% of all CGT-related nudge letters, ahead of shares and property combined. New international rules requiring exchanges to share transaction data directly with tax authorities are behind the shift, closing off a compliance gap that has existed for years.
Even straightforward token-to-token swaps can trigger a taxable event, a point that catches out clients who assume tax only applies once they cash out to sterling.
Key facts:
- 64,982 nudge letters issued in 2024-25, up from around 28,000 the year before
- Crypto accounts for 62.4% of all CGT-related nudge letters
- No nudge letters of this kind were issued in 2022-23
Any client holding crypto who has not had this conversation is increasingly likely to hear from HMRC before they hear from their adviser. A voluntary disclosure made now is treated far more favourably than one prompted by a letter.
Conclusion
The pattern this week is HMRC tightening on several fronts at once. The Capital Goods Scheme and MTD student loan reporting are matters of days and weeks, the crypto nudge campaign shows enforcement at a scale unseen two years ago, and the recklessness offence signals a falling standard of proof.
For most practices the immediate work is narrow: check capital expenditure against the CGS changes before 29 July, and confirm which clients above £50,000 qualifying income are still unregistered ahead of 7 August. The recklessness offence and the crypto letters are worth raising now, before either becomes urgent in its own right.
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