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ADR and Status
We are about to make an application for an ADR intervention in a Status issue which in our view should be cut and dried but for some reason the matter has been bounced around within HMRC for the last year and a half and has now been refered to a new "senior" officer to review. If anyone is interested we would be happy to keep them appraised as to how it works out.
ADR IS JUST A DISAPPOINTMENT LIKE AAMS-try complaints
we used an adr and all it did was crystalise the issues it in no way shortened the enquiry process or reduced hmrc enquiry costs!-like AAMS it will probably be a time waster for agents-I suggest you go straight for heavy and irate complaints-evrything else doesnt work
Helpful?
all it did was crystalise the issues
Surely that is a significant step forward, especially in the typical case where side issues (eg disputes over whether non-decisive further information should be supplied) have the potential to delay and confuse everybody?
Cherry Picking?
I applied to use ADR to try to resolve a dispute with HMRC. However they don't accept all applications - in my case they came back after 30 days and said they couldn't help. They'd contacted the Inspector dealing with the case, and he'd said no. The ADR team informed me that my application had been rejected without speaking to me or asking for any further information.
I'm not sure why this facility should be available for some disputes but not for others.
So be slightly wary of the stats showing how well the scheme has done. If you pre-select cases carefully enough you can get any result you wish.
Ask why?
Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I thought it was a prerequisite of ADR (generally) that both parties agree, either ab initio or ad hoc, to resort to ADR.
So it might be helpful to telephone the inspector and ask, in a fairly casual, just-because-I'm-interested sort of way, what prevented this case from going to ADR. If you're lucky, and your counterpart is a reasonable sort, it could be the start of a dialogue that enables you start addressing the real issues in the case and move it forward to resolution.
Complications
My experience was complicated as it was linked to another, larger dispute involving another party. So it was a case of HMRC not wanting to settle one case that could affect the outcome of the other.
This is the only time I've applied to ADR so I can't claim to be an expert. But I was left with the feeling that my dispute was too "complicated" for ADR to get involved with. But it's the complicated disputes we need an arbitration process for - not the easy cases where the parties are all "reasonable sorts" who just need to get together over a coffee.