Meeting Points

Hansard cases

Paul Harrison ex-Special Compliance Office group leader now with KPMG spoke about Special Compliance Office investigations involving the Hansard policy statement. He described the process from the opening letter through to final negotiations. He remembered that Inspectors in local tax districts had to refer cases for vetting by Special Compliance Office if there was good reason to believe that profits had been understated by £50 000 in total or by £25 000 in any one year. This may have now changed but in any case Special Compliance Office would not normally take a case unless the Inspector believed it would settle for at least £125 000 tax interest and penalty. (Writer's note – If a case is transferred from a tax district to Special Compliance Office then the district will be credited with £50 000 for the purposes of its own statistics unless...