New data obtained by the Contentious Tax Group shows increasing rates of success for challenges to HMRC decisions using the HMRC internal review process. Although the picture varies considerably across the five departments which make up HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group appeals against automatic penalties – for example the £100 self-assessment initial late-filing penalty – have been particularly effective with a 70% cancellation rate in 2023/24 (compared to 58% in 2022/23). The Group comments that this could reflect the ‘current and ongoing decline in HMRC customer service standards and the ever-greater difficulties experienced by taxpayers in trying get telephone assistance from HMRC to help them meet their obligations’.
HMRC decisions in relation to avoidance schemes (taken by its Counter-Avoidance team) appear to have been particularly robust however with only 1% of decisions that were subject to review being overturned – not necessarily surprising given HMRC’s focus on...
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New data obtained by the Contentious Tax Group shows increasing rates of success for challenges to HMRC decisions using the HMRC internal review process. Although the picture varies considerably across the five departments which make up HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group appeals against automatic penalties – for example the £100 self-assessment initial late-filing penalty – have been particularly effective with a 70% cancellation rate in 2023/24 (compared to 58% in 2022/23). The Group comments that this could reflect the ‘current and ongoing decline in HMRC customer service standards and the ever-greater difficulties experienced by taxpayers in trying get telephone assistance from HMRC to help them meet their obligations’.
HMRC decisions in relation to avoidance schemes (taken by its Counter-Avoidance team) appear to have been particularly robust however with only 1% of decisions that were subject to review being overturned – not necessarily surprising given HMRC’s focus on...
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