HMRC’s new option to tax confirmation procedure

The legendary football manager Brian Clough once commented after an important match: ‘We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately the game was played on grass.’ To revamp his eloquent words into the theme of this article: ‘Tax law and policy is written on paper. Unfortunately the results depend on our clients’ behaviour.’

The common theme of both quotes is that some issues can be good in theory but produce problems in practice. For example a star player might under-perform because he is injured or unwell; tax policy might be ineffective because our clients do not understand the rules or how to apply them correctly.

So here is my key message: ‘Don’t let clients notify their option to tax property elections to HMRC after 1 February 2023 without either checking their email before they send it or preferably doing it for them.’

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