Opening enquiry: Information Powers: Resistance to opening meetings [348]
You may find that with some agents there is stronger resistance to meetings under SA. They may argue that since you have not given grounds for dissatisfaction with the return they cannot recommend that their clients attend a meeting. Where you adopt the approach of examining the records before seeing the taxpayer it may lessen the likelihood of this sort of resistance. You can indicate any areas of concern with the records that you particularly wish to discuss at the meeting and this may make the agent more willing to recommend attendance. You should, however, avoid giving the impression of having jumped to conclusions before you have had the opportunity of hearing what the taxpayer has to say.