Sean Wakeman outlines how the statutory review process works, and explains how and where it could be improved.
A statutory review process was introduced in 2009 for use by clients/taxpayers who disagreed with a tax decision made by HMRC.
A client can ask for a review, make an appeal to the tax tribunal, or take both actions. The statutory review system was intended to give taxpayers a quick and easy route to ask HMRC to look again at their decisions.
Sixteen years ago, the introduction of a second ‘pair of eyes’ was generally welcomed as a bold and innovative move by HMRC to give taxpayers a second opinion, to prevent rogue decisions getting to the Tribunal and protect against maverick inspectors. It was also doubtless intended to curb over-enthusiastic practitioners who perhaps had an overly optimistic view of their chances of success at a tax tribunal.
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