17 June 2024 
Julia Ascott, Employment Taxes Specialist
The BUFDG 2024 Tax Conference wrapped up on Thursday last week by demonstrating the epitome of the Higher Education sector, thanking those individuals who have either spent the last year, or their entire HE working life helping and supporting others within the sector. There were congratulations to all but some sadness for those now leaving the sector, not for them of course, as they go on to enjoy a well earnt retirement. You can find details of all the recipients here.
This article summarises the sessions held for the benefit of those who were not able to attend the conference. If, upon reading this article, you wish you could watch the sessions, you can! Email Gill who’ll be able to guide you on purchasing access to all slides/recordings available. NB the UK VAT Update session from Deloitte could not be recorded due to their internal policies but all other sessions are available.
The slides and recordings are now available here (if you registered for the tax conference). From the initial review of feedback, members welcome the opportunity to be able to watch a recording that they weren’t able to get to (time permitting!).
In terms of the sessions themselves, there was a mixture of content for those that:
We’ve split out our summaries according to the content type (below).
But first, our opening plenary gave us food for thought as Darren Xiberras from Cardiff University provided sobering thoughts on university finances and why it’s difficult to get tax on a senior agenda. In terms of what does get Darren’s attention from Cardiff’s tax team, it is large capital projects where VAT can be a game-changer, significant compliance failures and HMRC audits. KPMG also fed back on how, during a system implementation, you can get tax included within initial discussions. There were a couple of sessions during the tax conference that focused on system implementations as well.
If you are new to the sector, the round up sessions (1A – Employment Tax & Global Mobility roundup and 1B – UK VAT update) that kick-started the technical part of the conference are a good starting point, highlighting the most prevalent issues within the sector, alongside what you should know from a general tax perspective.
One of the most searched term on the BUFDG website is an iteration of employment status (IR35, off-payroll, etc). This is why there is always at least one session at the tax conference and this years’ session (4A – Employment Status, IR35 & Off-Payroll Working) took us back to basics on the difference between employment status for tax and employment status for employment rights purposes, why we have to check status at all and how we can go about doing this.
In 6B – Back to Basics VAT, PwC provided a whistle stop tour of a number of issues, including (amongst others) Is a supply closely related to education?; Medical equipment & zero rating and Capital expenditure and key considerations.
Andrea is cheating by including this session in 2 categories. KPMG’s session 4B - Online learning update, focused on the technical changes that will impact the place of supply of online learning in the EU from January 2025, but the KPMG team worked through this so logically, Andrea thinks that it would be useful to those who are new to the topic, so she has cheated and included it in both this and the wider knowledge sectors .
Our final two sessions in this content space was not delivered by advisers. Firstly in 7C – What to think about if you’re new to the sector, three tax managers from the sector gave an overview of the VAT, Corporate Tax and Employment Tax aspects they dealt with and openly shared their lived experiences on the rocks they wish they’d turned over sooner (or, perhaps not at all), plus answering the question, if they could do it again where would they start?
In 8C – How well do you work with others, the BUFDG and wider PHES team shared why they are an effective team (no surprises, mutual respect and taking time to understand other perspectives), and left us with some tips on how to talk to ‘tricky customers’ within your institution.
Recommended sessions: 3A – Feedback & thoughts from HMRC Employer Duties reviews, , 8A – Expenses & Benefits: Can they be sustainable?
With HMRC’s announcement of mandatory payrolling of benefits earlier this year, due to be implemented in 2026, in 2A – Payrolling of Benefits, RSM walked us through what benefits can currently be payrolled, with tips and hints on getting it right, plus where many universities can get it wrong (NMW failures). We often focus on the UK side, so it was incredible useful to get a global mobility perspective on this issue, looking at the challenges of payrolling of benefits whilst an employee is working overseas.
Global mobility was the focus of two other sessions. In 9A – How do you triage Global Mobility, KPMG gave us ‘buckets’ of focus to help with prioritising your list of global mobility issues and focus your time more effectively. If you’ve received correspondence from tax authorities, that should come first, shortly followed by high risk countries, such as China.
The second global mobility session looked at the importance of having appropriate policies in place, 4C – Global Mobility Overseas Working Policies. An excellent and insightful session delivered in podcast style by Marie from Vialto and Anne from Kings College London. Marie interviewed Anne on the thorny process of developing, and more importantly implementing a global mobility policy. We learnt about not just the technical issues around global mobility, but the importance of getting the right people on board with the purpose of the policy and selling the policy as a positive move.
The tax implications of expenses and benefits were highlighted in two very different sessions. 3A – Feedback & thoughts from HMRC Employer Duties reviews, shared experiences of those who had undergone a recent review by helping others to prepare, covering the types of questions asked, the information requested and the time it took to resolve. The most common issues arising during a HMRC review was the amount of time it took from open to formal closure of the review, with employment status appearing to be the most common technical issue.
In 8A – Expenses & Benefits: Can they be sustainable? Caroline Rai from PwC covered the tax aspects of the provision of expenses and benefits, which are more effective and efficient than others. But then Sion Pickering from the University of Edinburgh challenged us to think more broadly about how we write our policies and processes to support institutions towards a more sustainable experience. There were a couple of slightly left field suggestions made, which we hope will challenge your thinking on this area.
There were two sessions at the conference on online learning issues. KPMG’s session 4B - Online learning update, focused on the technical changes that will impact the place of supply of online learning in the EU from January 2025, whilst PwC’s 9B – Online learning update session with Chris Bridgman from Kings, talked through how best to focus limited resources on this complex area – especially when there is potential tax registration requirements in a number of overseas countries.
The two import and export sessions (KPMG’s 3B Imports and Exports and The Customs People 8B Imports) were co-presented with university staff sharing hints and tips on how they are coping with this minefield.
Big For Tax’s Kerry Sykes talked us through the tricky issue in session 5B Business/Non Business on how to treat various income streams (including advice on how to load a dishwasher..!) In his second session 7B – research and VAT/CT, Kerry was joined by Harriet Latham from the University of Glasgow for a game of Cluedo and to discuss the CT and VAT issues that universities need to consider.
In 5C – Corporation Tax update, using interactive role play, the KPMG team demonstrate how to have those difficult conversations about tax, including signatory responsibilities, how to get CT up a senior agenda and how if tax isn’t considered early on, unexpected costs in international arrangements can arise.
As we grapple with how best to free-up limited resources, two sessions considered Tax Automation. In session 6C What a Tax Engine can do for you, Ryan explained what a tax engine is and what it can and can’t do and in session 9C - Tax automation and system upgrades, Neil Turner from the University of Manchester was joined by BDO experts to share their wisdom on this topic.
Recommended sessions: 6A – Visiting Academics & Researchers, 7A – Stipends, bursaries & scholarship income,
An incredibly insightful session on 5A – Volunteers & Research Participants, with BDO providing the technical background around the National Minimum Wage and employment status challenges when taking on someone as a volunteer or research participant, but also making a payment to them as part of, for example, funder or grant requirements. It was then followed by Harriet Latham from the University of Glasgow who shared their journey of this group, from the perspective of putting a practical and reasonable procedure in place, that achieved buy-in from the tax manager but, arguably more importantly, the research teams engaging those individuals.
In two sessions from Employment Tax experts, Paul Moreels and Anne-Marie Bodin from KPMG, we focused on two very higher education specific subjects. In 6A – Visiting Academics & Researchers, we reviewed the technical background on HMRC’s position on visiting fellows and why KPMG are seeing more challenges on why they could be taxable as employees of a UK university, or liable to tax more generally under miscellaneous income.
In 7A – Stipends, Bursaries and Scholarship income, KPMG returned to this thorny subject, where the challenges surrounding, particularly, PHD students and their duties continue to muddy the waters when it comes to paying stipend income. Mel Green from Lancaster University provided excellent overview on how her university first got to grips with the issue, and then putting in place a framework in which to work.
We welcomed back Martin Scammell in session 2B VAT and Property. Martin provided an overview of some property related hot topics. If your university is considering installing “green energy” schemes, Martin talks through when VAT reliefs can and can’t be claimed on the installation of energy saving materials. He also highlights some recent caselaw and how HMRC might be changing its VAT approach in relation to use of property.
In 2C Transfer Pricing update, we once again welcomed back the Grant Thornton team for a refresher on the issues that universities need to consider in relation to TP, which is heavily dependent upon whether a university’s turnover is over or under a key €750m threshold. Once you have watched this session, we suggest printing off the slides because, along with the TP resources n BUFDG’s website, they will be a useful memory jogger of the issues you need to consider when working through a TP transformation.
Andrea and Julia now start the preparations for the 2025 BUFDG Tax Conference which takes place in-person, from 11 to 12 June at Edgbaston Conference Centre at the University of Birmingham. It’s a great venue and we hope to see you there.
