Draft guidance for HMRC staff on the department’s updated Litigation and Settlement Strategy (LSS) runs to 45 pages.
The ‘refreshed’ LSS published last month sets out the principles governing HMRC’s handling of disputes in relation to taxes, duties and tax credits.
‘These arrests are just the start,’ said a senior HMRC official as the department announced the arrest of five plumbers in London, Hampshire, Surrey, Middlesex and the West Midlands.
Leading tax bodies have called on HMRC to take deliberate steps to win the trust of tax agents, many of whom ‘cannot understand’ why HMRC are considering investing in a system to monitor agents when the department needs to focus on improving its services.
HMRC have announced a single helpline number for people and businesses affected by this week's riots in English cities, and have offered to help taxpayers who have lost records or miss deadlines.
More than 600 tax enquiries targeting people in the plumbing industry will be under way by the time the Plumbers Tax Safe Plan disclosure opportunity closes at the end of this month, HMRC have warned.
HMRC are seeking views on proposals to accelerate the move to online delivery of services, with a view to making a proposed registration wizard the ‘digital by default channel’ for PAYE, corporation tax, income tax self assessment and class 2 NICs.
The proposed monitoring of tax agents by HMRC may offer the long term advantage of ‘removing from the system’ poor agents who undercut prices charged by those providing a better quality service, according to the ICAEW’s Tax Faculty.