HM Revenue & Customs’ decision to extend its enquiries into corporation tax self-assessment returns in order to cover the personal taxation and financial affairs of company directors is a step too far.

I am becoming increasingly concerned by the Revenue’s latest attempts to extract information from taxpayers, mainly from within the SME sector.

Apart from the change in attitude and approach – it has gone from being a user-friendly department to a zero-tolerance organisation with the setting of totally unrealistic deadlines – the Revenue is seeking to make feeble attempts to try and extend enquiries into corporation tax self-assessment returns so that they cover the financial affairs of the directors.

I have strong objections to HMRC conducting itself in this manner and I’m sure I will not be alone once this becomes more widely known.

I believe that these approaches are the result of some sort of edict being handed down from head office, but the various arguments being raised are really quite contemptible.

In fact, far worse than simply being ethically questionable, the actions of certain inspectors who have contacted me are, in fact, in breach of their own internal instructions contained within the enquiry manual EM8508, which deals specifically with extending enquiries into directors’ affairs.

Section 20 of Information Powers represents an extremely powerful weapon in the hands of HMRC and is now being used, misused and abused by inspectors, who dislike the constraints of the self-assessment enquiry regime and resent not getting their own way throughout the approved enquiry process.

However, I will not be cajoled by the spurious arguments of the Revenue to overcome these frustrations. Legislation and rules are in place for a reason and these should not be abused by the taxman as a scare tactic for the uninitiated.

While my clients are of course represented, there are thousands of taxpayers out there who do not use the services of professional accountants and there is no question that the Revenue will seek to persecute the weak with these scattergun tactics. I urge these SMEs to beware.

Barry Lewis is senior partner of Harris Lipman Chartered Accountants