Amit Puri reviews HMRC action against third parties including agents and advisers \u2013 or the lack of it\u2026
We recently asked HMRC for statistics and information on penalties and other sanctions they could and should have levied on deserving third parties for bad behaviour. We wanted to gauge both HMRC\u2019s powers and appetite in the pursuit of advisers.
We acknowledged that HMRC can and do raise tax assessments on people even where they have taken \u2018reasonable care\u2019 with their own tax affairs. However, this was in cases where the errors\/irregularities were due to the \u2018careless\u2019 or \u2018deliberate\u2019 actions of someone other than them. We asked how many such instances there were in the past five years, annually?
We also acknowledged that HMRC can and do issue penalties on persons other than the taxpayer, where those persons had \u2018deliberately\u2019 caused inaccuracies or withheld information. We asked how many such instances there were in the past five years, annually, and the value of the penalties? These penalties will have been charged under Paragraph 1A of Schedule 24 to the Finance Act 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Download the full article below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n