Freelancers and contractors’ representative body, the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has called for a legal duty of care to be placed on HM Revenue and Customs so they cannot perform 'rogue investigations'.
The PCG made this demand in its formal response to HMRC's consultations on safeguards and compliance checks.
PCG's policy officer John Kell said: 'Freelancers and other small businesses have very little trust in HMRC so it's high time that HMRC was put under a legal obligation not to harm peoples' commercial interests. Many of our members have costly and distressing experiences of dealing with HMRC, even when they owe no tax and it's quite wrong that HMRC can just walk away.'
The call was made just weeks after the judgment in the Arctic Systems case, in which HMRC was found to have issued a wholly incorrect tax demand for £42,000 and the owners of Arctic Systems, Geoff and Diana Jones
Further reading:
HMRC questioned over IR35 investigations
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