When HMRC makes a request for a personal bank statement can you refuse? Salman Anwar and Haris Rehman explains the ins and outs of this thorny issue.
Even to the most innocent of taxpayers, an enquiry letter from HMRC can cause the pulse to race and the heart to pound. A person could have done everything within their power to meet their filing obligations as well as kept all the necessary records, yet when that letter comes through the post signed off by an officer of HMRC, everyone fears the worst. Even the innocent feel guilty! It is this fear that leads most people to rush to comply with every request from HMRC without stopping to consider the merits of those requests. In the authors’ experience it is not unknown for HMRC to prey on this fear. Indeed, it is not unknown for an Inspector to say: “If your client has nothing to worry about, why should he not want me to see everything?”
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