Taxation Disciplinary Board handles record number of complaints

A RECORD NUMBER of complaints were made against professional tax advisers in 2012, the Taxation Disciplinary Board has confirmed.

The independent body, which deals with disciplinary matters involving members of the CIoT, ATT and Institute of Indirect Taxation, received 45 complaints from members of the public and professional bodies.

Eight cases were heard by disciplinary tribunals, while the body has introduced new powers to make interim orders in cases where the need for public protection requires the suspension of a member pending a full tribunal hearing.

President of the board – and Law Society chief executive – Des Hudson said a growing number of complaints are raising more complex policy and procedural issues, although court challenges to the body’s processes have all been dismissed.

He said: “Our participant bodies, the profession and the public as a whole can continue to have every confidence in the board. We seek in all cases to balance the public interest in ensuring that our processes and responses to the concerns of complainants are both accessible and effective, whilst satisfying the reasonable expectation of members that our processes deliver fair and proportionate responses to complaints.

“Our disciplinary arrangements are set up primarily to protect the public, but by upholding professional standards they also help to maintain public confidence in the profession.”