Taxation - Revenue aims to calm advisers

The Inland Revenue invited hundreds of tax advisers to its Lincoln training centre last weekend in a bid to convince them that the hotly disputed convention on company prosecutions did not undermine the Hansard rule on tax disputes, writes Phillip Inman.

The #475-a-head conference was dominated by irate tax advisers anxious to hear why the convention should not deter them from making disclosures on behalf of their clients. The convention is an agreement between authorities such as the Revenue, Customs & Excise, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office, to co-ordinate prosecutions.

It sparked a furious row between tax advisers and the Revenue after advisers realised clients could face prosecution after previously settling with the Revenue.

Head of the special compliance office Frank Branagan issued a statement that repeated the statement by the solicitor general on the Hansard ruling, published exclusively in Accountancy Age (21 May, page 2).