Amit Puri examines the latest Codes of Practice 8 and 9 tax investigations statistics and shares his insights on what they mean.
As outlined in a previous original article, HMRC’s investigations carried out under their Codes of Practice 8 and 9 are intensive and resource hungry. Without careful and experienced handling a client’s interests cannot be fully protected and the processes managed with more certainty. HMRC are looking for lost taxes, interest for the late payment of those taxes, and typically large penalties for failing to submit correct tax returns or failing to notify HMRC that taxes were payable. In addition to this, HMRC will usually seek to name and shame clients publicly – their non-financial weapon.
With this in mind, my focus returned to the statistics for HMRC’s serious civil tax investigations, specifically those cases under Code of Practice 9 (COP9) and Code of Practice 8 (COP8).
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