New criminal offence will have safeguards, says HMRC

The proposed new criminal offence of failing to comply with a stop notice will have robust governance processes said HMRC in response to concerns raised by the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

The institute had written to HMRC in response to the draft legislation on the offence published in the summer. Broadly while supporting the need to raise standards in the tax advice market and ‘driving out bad actors’ it said ‘an important constitutional line is being crossed by this legislation namely that (in principle at least) something can potentially be a crime on HMRC’s say-so given that a decision to issue a stop notice will rest entirely with HMRC with no external oversight’. The institute also considered the appeal process to be ‘flawed’.

In reply the tax authority said it will publish a summary...