Weekly News & Updates for UK Accountants (19-23 October 2026)
The Autumn Budget is less than a week away, and it shows. Talks of tax changes and regulatory updates are everywhere. But are any of them true? Read our weekly update to find out
Chancellor John Healey delivers his first Budget on Wednesday 28 October, five days from now, and the profession has already set out what it wants: stability and simplification rather than more rate rises. That is the story to prepare for first. Close behind it, Croner has scheduled a technical briefing for the following afternoon.
The other two are about planning rather than panic. HMRC collected a record £75.8bn in September, much of it through frozen thresholds rather than rate rises. And a new technical analysis sets out how split-year treatment works for clients returning to the UK partway through a tax year.
Here is the detail.
Profession Presses for Tax Certainty Ahead of the Budget
Businesses want the tax system to stop moving. That is the message running through the formal representations, and one figure explains why: Ryan's Jenny Batchelor counts more than 140 tax policy changes affecting businesses in the past 12 months. BDO wants a moratorium on new business tax rises and regulatory burdens until the end of this Parliament in 2029. The ICAEW, warning that the tax system is nearing obsolescence, has funded its own root-and-branch review of the tax code.
ACCA is questioning whether MTD for Income Tax should reach lower-earning sole traders who already comply through annual Self Assessment. One in three of its surveyed members named MTD as the most burdensome task with the least tangible benefit.
Employment costs pull in two directions. With nearly 1 million young people classed as NEET, Menzies LLP wants temporary employer NIC relief for hiring them. NFU Mutual suggests the reverse for older workers: removing the NIC exemption for those working past State Pension age, which it estimates would raise £1.2bn a year. Elsewhere, MHA and BDO want lower CGT rates after long ownership and stronger reinvestment reliefs, and BDO favours a higher VAT registration threshold over a rate cut.
Key facts:
- Budget: Wednesday 28 October 2026, at around 12:30 PM
- BDO proposal: VAT registration threshold raised from £90,000 to £100,000
- NFU Mutual estimate: a working pensioner earning £25,000 would pay £994 a year in additional NIC
None of this is policy until the Chancellor stands up. The useful work now is knowing which clients each outcome would touch: those trading near the VAT threshold, employers with young or older staff, and anyone with a disposal in the pipeline. Have those lists ready so post-Budget briefings go out within days, not weeks.
Croner Sets Post-Budget Briefing for 29 October
The first read of a Budget is rarely the complete one. Croner's post-Budget webinar runs the following afternoon. It will cover the immediate impact for accountants and corporate clients, rate changes, tactical adjustments and the compliance pitfalls that are easy to miss on the day.
Key facts:
- Thursday 29 October 2026, 2:00 PM
- Chaired by Paul Robbins ACA CTA, director of tax at Croner
- Croner's specialist tax panel joined by a guest panellist from Lloyds Banking Group
If you plan to brief clients later that week, block out the time.
HMRC Collects a Record £75.8bn in September
September's tax take reached a record £75.8bn, up 6.4% on a year earlier, and very little of it came from headline rate rises. PAYE was the largest single contributor at £23.2bn for the month, lifted by allowances that stay frozen until 2031.
Employers are carrying much of the rest. Employer NICs brought in £150.1bn over the 12 months to September 2026, and the CIPD has called on the Chancellor to raise the secondary threshold. Corporation tax reached £17.9bn, the second highest monthly figure on record.
IHT keeps climbing, with Evelyn Partners pointing to asset values and frozen nil-rate bands. SDLT was the outlier, down £152m year on year to £1.3bn.
Key facts:
- Total September receipts: £75.8bn, up 6.4% year on year
- Employer NICs: £150.1bn in the 12 months to September 2026
- IHT: £936m in September alone
Frozen thresholds do their work quietly. Clients whose income has crept into a higher band, and estates that now sit above the nil-rate band, are worth reviewing before the Budget adds anything new.
Split-Year Cases 4 & 8 Turn on Having a UK Home
Some clients move back to the UK mid-year for reasons other than work, such as a retiree returning from abroad. For them, split-year treatment can carve the months before the move into an overseas part of the year. It only applies once the client is UK resident for the tax year as a whole under the Statutory Residence Test.
Of the eight cases in Schedule 45 to the Finance Act 2013, Cases 4 and 8 cover arrivals with no employment trigger. Both turn on when the client starts to have a UK home, with UK ties day counts reduced pro rata for the months before that date.
FA 2013 Sch 45 para 25 defines a home as a building, vehicle, vessel or other structure used with some degree of permanence or stability. Ownership is not required. HMRC's manual at RFIG22140 accepts a permanently occupied mobile home or a long stay with parents. A holiday property does not count, and nor does a home the client has let commercially or put on the market.
Key facts:
- Case 4: the client was non-resident the previous year, meets the only home test partway through the year and keeps meeting it, and has insufficient UK ties before that date
- Case 8: the overseas home can be kept, but the UK home must be retained through the whole of the following tax year, and the client must be UK resident for all of it
- Where both cases apply, the one giving the earliest UK start date takes priority
The date the home test is met can decide the outcome, so the evidence matters. Ask returning clients to keep tenancy or purchase agreements, removal invoices, utility connection records, council tax registrations and electoral roll entries.
Also In The News
- Weekly News & Updates for UK Accountants (12-16 October 2026): last week’s round-up of the stories that shaped the week for UK practitioners.
- Get Clients’ Documents Faster: the system UK accountants are using to stop chasing clients for paperwork.
- UK Dividend Tax Rates & Calculator 2026/27: this year’s rates and the £500 allowance, with worked examples, reporting rules and a free calculator.
- How to Onboard MTD Clients Efficiently in 2026: a full workflow for segmenting, pricing, AML checks, authorisation and sign-up, without doubling your admin.
Conclusion
The pattern this week is a Treasury collecting more than ever while the profession asks it to stand still. Record receipts from frozen thresholds and employer NICs arrive alongside representations asking for certainty over further change.
For most practices the immediate work is narrow: build the Budget-day client lists before 28 October, and block out the afternoon of 29 October for the Croner briefing. Band-creep and IHT reviews can follow, and returning clients need their home evidence in order before their split-year position is tested.
We publish these updates every week. Follow us to get next week's round-up as soon as it lands.