Administration and appeals: 'Lack of clarity' in powers regime
A review of HMRC's new powers regime conducted by the CIOT has found 'no big rash of horror stories' but has identified a number of ways in which the powers are not operating 'as effectively as we think they could'.
There was a lack of clarity about what powers would be used in which circumstances said Andrew Hubbard the outgoing CIOT President. There were also some concerns about the new penalty regime. 'HMRC seem reluctant either to impose high penalties for deliberate understatement or to accept that there have been innocent errors in some cases instead going in almost every case for the middle option of determining a failure to take reasonable care ' Hubbard said.
The CIOT's 54-page report concluded that after the new regime's first year in operation fears about 'excessive and inappropriate'...