Has anything changed?

In 1992 I wrote an article for Taxation magazine following a series of articles in The Times newspaper that was highly critical of the actions of what was then the Inland Revenue in connection with tax investigations. It should be remembered that at that time self assessment had not been introduced and there were no statutory legislation provisions actually authorising the conduct of investigations and enquiries.

The reaction to my article from the upper echelons of the Revenue was so great that the then editor of Taxation magazine Malcolm Gunn allowed the department to write its own article refuting what I had written.

In retrospect it may have been that I relied too much on anecdotal evidence in preparing my article. This is not the case in this instance however as I have the whole copy file concerning a corporation tax...