Revenue reprimanded over advert
Child trust fund ad failed to include investment warning
Revenue & Customs has been ticked off by the advertising watchdog over an
advert for the child trust fund.
The advert failed to include a warning that investments can go down as well
as up, something that is mandatory on all investment advertising.
The Revenue’s ad read that ‘A child trust fund account is guarded for 18
years. No one can touch it. Not even the taxman.’
In future, the Advertising Standards Authority said, the Revenue should
indicate that if the CTF were invested in a stakeholder or investment account,
the value of it could fall as well as rise.
An HMRC spokesman is quoted in The Times as saying: ‘It’s not a big
thing as far as we’re concerned. We voluntarily suibmit copy to the ASA for
their consideration. Information is already out there to suggest that accounts
do go up and down.’