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Daily Accountancy Briefing

The mansion-tax surcharge looks set to start at £2m, catching around 134,000 homes

Wednesday, 14 October 2026•UK & Ireland

Ahead of the 28 October Budget, Accountancy Age reports the High Value Council Tax Surcharge will start at £2m rather than £1.5m, roughly halving the homes caught to about 134,000 and putting the focus on the £1.8m to £2.2m grey zone. Revenue has refreshed its CAT, CGT and VAT guidance after Budget 2027, the EU has updated its list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, the Treasury Committee has questioned FCA leadership on a whistleblower matter and Palantir, and Quilter has grown its bereavement team by half ahead of pension inheritance tax changes.

Accountancy in Practice

High Value Council Tax Surcharge: £2m threshold reportedly confirmed

£1.5m entry point ruled out271,000 homes down to ~134,000£2,500 to £7,500 a year by band

Accountancy Age reports that the Chancellor has ruled out the lower £1.5m entry point for the High Value Council Tax Surcharge ahead of the 28 October Budget, with £2m now the confirmed starting point. The decision roughly halves the number of homes caught, from an estimated 271,000 at £1.5m to about 134,000 at £2m. The surcharge is reported at £2,500 to £7,500 a year by band, and applies to whole-dwelling value.

Homes caught by the surcharge, by entry pointdwellings

Moving the entry point to £2m roughly halves the number of dwellings in scope.

What this means for firms. Private client teams should focus on the £1.8m to £2.2m grey zone, around 73,600 properties per Knight Frank. Commission independent RICS valuations as evidence against automated VOA valuations, and build the surcharge into cash-flow and pension drawdown forecasts. Restructuring to avoid the charge is discouraged, since it could trigger CGT or SDLT.

Accountancy Age

Technical Updates

EU updates its list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions

Annex I and II refreshedDAC6 and withholding analyses

The Council of the EU has refreshed Annex I and Annex II of its list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. Practice teams should factor the update into disclosure, DAC6, and withholding analyses for Irish-headquartered groups and inbound structures.

Chartered Accountants Ireland

Revenue refreshes CAT, CGT and VAT guidance after Budget 2027

Capital acquisitions taxCapital gains taxVAT manuals

Revenue has refreshed its capital acquisitions tax guidance to reflect Budget 2027 amendments, issued further capital gains tax manual amendments, and published a batch of VAT manual updates. Private client teams should re-check reliefs, thresholds, and valuation references before advising on lifetime transfers and estate planning, and indirect tax teams should review sector-specific supply treatment and place-of-supply points.

What this means for firms. Refresh client letters and planning templates now, ahead of year-end disposal activity. Guidance that changed after the Budget will catch out templates drafted before it.

Chartered Accountants Ireland, Revenue

European Parliament adopts recommendations on corporate tax strategy

Direction-of-travel signalPillar Two, CbCR, ATAD

MEPs have agreed a set of recommendations for the EU's future corporate tax strategy. The resolution is a direction-of-travel signal for multinational groups and advisers monitoring Pillar Two implementation and the direction of country-by-country reporting and ATAD-adjacent files.

Chartered Accountants Ireland

Special Assignee Relief Programme statistics for 2024 published

Revenue SARP data

Revenue's SARP statistics for 2024 are now available, a useful reference for inbound assignment planning and HR-tax advisory work for Irish-based multinational clients.

Chartered Accountants Ireland, Revenue

HMRC & Revenue

Revenue issues renewed scam warning

Phishing and impersonation

Irish Revenue has issued a renewed warning on phishing and impersonation scams aimed at taxpayers. Practices should remind clients that Revenue will not request bank details, PINs, or passwords by SMS, email, or phone.

What this means for firms. Send a one-paragraph client reminder this week. Fraud attempts spike around filing and Budget periods, and a firm that warns early protects both the client and its own reputation.

Chartered Accountants Ireland, Revenue

Dublin hosts the Tax Administration EU Summit

EU revenue authoritiesDigitalisation and data exchange

Dublin hosted the Tax Administration EU Summit, bringing together EU revenue authorities on cooperation, digitalisation, and compliance strategy. The summit is a backdrop to expected further moves on cross-border data exchange and real-time reporting alignment.

Chartered Accountants Ireland

Half the UK population is struggling to keep up with announced tax changes

Professional Adviser surveySpeculation driving client enquiries

With two weeks to the Autumn Budget, speculation around the mansion tax, inheritance tax, and pensions tax is driving client enquiries. A Professional Adviser survey finds half of the UK population reports struggling to keep up with announced changes.

Keeping up with tax changes

of the UK population reports struggling to keep up with announced tax changes

Professional Adviser

Software Updates

Plannr and Dynamic Planner launch two-way integration

Two-way sync liveFact-find, risk profiling, portfolio data

Advice CRM Plannr has gone live with a two-way integration with cash-flow modelling tool Dynamic Planner, allowing advice firms to sync client fact-find, risk-profiling, and portfolio data without re-keying. Practical for IFA back-office teams running both platforms.

Professional Adviser

Corporate Finance & M&A

Wealth M&A outlook: £500m to £2bn AUA firms the next battleground

Too big to bolt on, too small to leadPE-backed consolidator pricing

An opinion piece from Dyer Baade and Company argues that the next phase of UK wealth-sector consolidation will centre on firms with £500m to £2bn in assets under advice: too large to be bolt-ons, too small to lead their own roll-ups, and increasingly priced by PE-backed consolidators. Expect valuation pressure and more off-market processes in the mid-tier.

What this means for firms. Wealth firms in that band should be building an independent view of value now, rather than reacting to the first approach. Off-market processes reward the prepared.

Professional Adviser

Independent Financial Advisory & Regulation

Treasury Committee questions FCA leadership on whistleblower inquiry and Palantir

FCA governance scrutinyData-handling relationship

MPs have questioned FCA leaders over a whistleblower matter and the regulator's commercial relationship with data firm Palantir, a watch-point for firms tracking FCA governance credibility and data-handling practices.

Professional Adviser

Quilter boosts bereavement team by 50% ahead of pension IHT changes

Unused pensions into the estateOperational preparation

Quilter has expanded its bereavement support function by half ahead of the rules bringing unused pension funds into the estate for inheritance tax, a signal of the operational preparation larger firms are putting in place for the change. Smaller advice firms should assess their own capacity to handle a likely rise in bereavement and estate-settlement work.

+50%

Growth in Quilter's bereavement support team

Professional Adviser

Foster Denovo pre-tax loss widens to £1.1m

£1.1m pre-tax lossRevenue and headcount up

National advice firm Foster Denovo has reported its pre-tax loss widening to £1.1m even as group revenue and headcount expanded, underlining the margin squeeze still weighing on consolidating advice groups.

Professional Adviser

Former Nexus IFA director pleads guilty to £2m fraud

£2m fraudClient-money controls

A former Nexus IFA director and a colleague have pleaded guilty to a £2m fraud, a reminder for compliance teams on governance, segregation of duties, and client-money controls at smaller advice firms.

Professional Adviser

LPA-related financial misconduct complaints rising

Lasting Powers of AttorneyAuthority verification

Complaints involving financial misconduct linked to Lasting Powers of Attorney are rising. Advisers should document attorney engagement, verify authority, and watch for warning signs of coercion.

Professional Adviser

Pensions UK: reform should sit within a wider economic strategy

Tax relief, salary sacrifice, IHT

Pensions UK has called on government to anchor pensions reform in a broader economic plan, as the industry awaits Budget detail on tax relief, salary sacrifice, and the inheritance tax treatment of unused pension funds.

Professional Adviser

Ireland: Budget 2027 Watch

IFAC's Fast and Loose challenges the stance of Budget 2027

Fiscal stance concernsESRI distributional analysis

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has published Fast and Loose, setting out its concerns on the stance of Budget 2027, and the ESRI has released its post-Budget analysis covering distributional impact and fiscal stance. Both are likely to be cited by clients and in year-end economic commentary from Irish practices. Chartered Accountants Ireland has also re-circulated its Budget 2027 Special Tax Newsletter as a consolidated reference for tax teams preparing client communications and year-end planning.

What this means for firms. Clients reading the IFAC critique may ask whether Budget measures will hold. Have a view ready on which reliefs look durable and which could be revisited.

IFAC, ESRI, Chartered Accountants Ireland