Forum to check out HMRC's new powers
HMRC sets up board of business and accounting experts to avoid problems such as those encountered during the introduction of self-assessment tax filing
In a bid to avoid the problems that haunted the introduction of
self-assessment tax filing, the taxman is setting up a board of business and
accounting experts to run the rule over its new powers.
In a column in this week’s Accountancy Age, HMRC permanent secretary
for tax Dave Hartnett says that a forum will oversee the implementation of the
new powers, and that he will chair it.
‘It is vitally important we get this right and learn lessons from the
introduction of self-assessment, where we ended up with more complex
arrangements than anyone had envisaged,’ he writes.
HMRC’s revamped powers include a new penalty scheme for non-payers and late
payers, and greater power to undertake compliance checks at premises, include
the right to investigate a business’s record-keeping.