Collaborative approach

The Chartered Institute of Taxation is welcoming a change to the government’s approach to improve tax compliance by large companies.

John Cullinane tax policy director said: “We are pleased that the framework for improving large business tax compliance is more collaborative than originally planned and includes reciprocal obligations on HMRC and taxpayers.” He hoped the spirit of the collaborative approach could be extended to small companies in the future.

In last summer’s consultation on improving large business tax compliance the institute questioned the effectiveness of a new “special measures” regime. This is intended to tackle large businesses that persistently undertake aggressive tax planning or refuse to engage with HMRC transparently. Mr Cullinane said: “We would have preferred HMRC to have invoked the general anti-abuse rule to deal with persistently unco-operative businesses before introducing a whole new regime such as this.”

The draft Finance Bill published in...