HMRC

I was so sorry to miss the CIOT/IFS debate on the powers of HMRC and the responsibility of citizens in today's world, due to a vote in Parliament. It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice that Parliamentary business and timing is a bit difficult to predict at the moment!

The Treasury Committee staged the latest witness session in its inquiry into tax enquiries and resolution of tax disputes this afternoon (6 February 2019). The Government's Making Tax Digital project was slated by FSB and ICAEW during the session, with the FSB making some grave predictions about its impact.

The House of Lords economic affairs committee is right to call for a new review of HMRC powers as the tax authority over-reaches itself with spurious tribunals and exhaustive investigations, not to mention the introduction of a 12-year time limit set out in Finance Bill 2018-19, says John Cullinane CTA, tax policy director at the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

CIOT hosted a speech and roundtable discussion with HMRC Chair Edward Troup and a small group of senior representatives from the tax profession on Monday last week. Mr Troup was speaking ahead of his retirement from HMRC at the end of this month. At the event he talked about how he saw HMRC and the tax profession developing in the future, including his belief that government was likely to be tempted to put further responsibilities on tax advisers in the future. Most eye-catchingly he thought one possible direction was segmentation of tax agents, categorising them with different levels of ‘risk rating’, with their clients being scrutinised accordingly.