This week's opinion: 15 August 2024

How much accounts investigation should HMRC undertake? The question is prompted by the qualification of HMRC’s accounts by the comptroller and auditor general because of uncertainty over the level of fraud and error in R&D claims. Readers will be well aware of the concerns raised by reputable advisers over what one commentator described as ‘the wild west’ of spurious or even fraudulent R&D claims. HMRC’s approach had to change but as we know there is genuine concern that things have swung too far in the other direction and that legitimate claims are being held up by unnecessary enquiries.

When I joined the Inland Revenue the department had recently moved from the old ways when most if not all accounts were reviewed in detail to the ERA system where to quote my old training manual ‘in practice no questions are asked on the majority...