Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) enquiries – which can be carried out on businesses and individuals – can be very stressful, time-consuming and costly for clients. It’s therefore vitally important that a professional accountant offers valuable guidance throughout the whole process to ensure clients achieve the best possible outcome with HMRC.
- Always check the validity of the enquiry notice issued by HMRC and challenge this where appropriate.
- Review the schedule of information and documents requested line by line to ensure the requests made are reasonable and relevant to the period under review.
- Consider having an early conversation with the Compliance Officer with a view to identifying the key areas of concern and the rationale behind the requests made. Keep HMRC informed at all stages, as a bit of rapport does no harm.
- Be confident in challenging HMRC on any areas as you see fit and don’t be shy in asking questions.
- Have a direct conversation with your client at the outset of the enquiry to ensure there are no issues to be disclosed.
- Request an extension from the Compliance Officer where necessary in advance of formal action being taken.
- Encourage co-operation with the enquiry process but remember there is no obligation to meet with HMRC so always consider what is in the client’s best interests.
- Consider all avenues to resolve any disputes that arise such as Alternative Dispute Resolution, Independent Review and as a last resort Tribunal.
- If errors have arisen, carefully review the behaviour that led to those errors to ensure that HMRC’s conclusions on penalties are fair and reasonable.
- Double check all settlement calculations issued by HMRC to ensure these are correct.
This article was written by James Cordiner and was originally published on The Cover – you can read the original Markel article here
How can Armadillo help?
Our Tax Partner Service gives members access to our own tax specialist, Matt Hall . Matt supports Armadillo members by offering an additional level of expertise for complex tax matters; be that a formal written answer, or simply a quick call and reassuring second opinion. Find out more about the tax support Armadillo members receive here: https://armadilloacademy.co.uk/tax-support/
