Tax zone

New Compliance Checks: Guidance will be subject to consultation

Envigorated by the 2008 Finance Act which passed new legislation to aligning formation and inspection powers, rules for record-keeping and time limits for assessments and claims, HMRC is limbering up and now looking to work out what to do with so many "goodies".

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HMRC has just announced that it is setting up an implementation team which will be responsible for producing Technical and Operational Guidance together with a comprehensive learning package. In a radical move for the department, it says that all these three elements will be the subject of external consultation.

Technical Guidance will be put to external consultation by the end of September. Operational Guidance will be produced in sections and once a section is completed, consultation will be sought.

The implementation team say that they wish to work collaboratively with businesses and their representatives and welcome early contact and views ahead of the process outlined above.

Editorial comment
Nichola Ross Martin adds: "It might come as a surprise to onlookers to find that HMRC obtained all its new (and controversial) powers without working out the details of how they are going to go down in practice, but perhaps now, some of us can grasp a bit better why it wants us to "wait and see" before we start looking at taxpayer safeguards. The phrase "horse before the cart" seems to be quite attractive in the circumstances."

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