Damned either way?

KEY POINTS

• When does provision of information to HMRC breach the DPA?
• Personal and sensitive personal data.
• Information must be reasonably required.
• Failure to redact data can leave a client exposed to a potentially substantial financial penalty.

An HMRC officer has powers that entitle him to require a taxpayer to provide information and documents to enable him to check the taxpayer’s tax position.

At the same time the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) works primarily to prohibit a taxpayer from making an inappropriate disclosure of certain “personal” or “sensitive personal” data.

Both sets of legislation impose penalties for failures to comply: the one for failing to provide information and the other for disclosing information.

The question for increasing numbers of taxpayers is how to satisfy the obligations imposed by both without at the same...