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New Tax, VAT Enquiry and Inspection rules
17/02/2009
Tyas & company, Chartered Accountants, Crawley, West Sussex
From 1 April 2009, new legislation amends the way HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) conducts tax enquiries, visits to business premises and inspections.
The changes affects checks on income tax, capital gains tax, VAT, PAYE, corporation tax and the construction industry scheme.
The new laws give HMRC the right to visit businesses in order to inspect premises, assets and records, and to ask taxpayers and third parties for more information and documents.
To help taxpayers understand the new rules, HMRC has put together a useful e-learning package.
The e-learning package provides an overview of the new enquiries and inspection system, and explains the changes in how HMRC officers check the tax position of individuals, companies and VAT-registered bodies.
The new legislation means that HMRC will have:
One set of powers to inspect business records, assets and premises
The ability to see statutory business records without a right of appeal
The ability to look at records for PAYE, income tax, the construction industry scheme, capital gains tax and corporation tax during the tax year before a return has been submitted
A new power to correct obvious errors in a tax return based on information held by HMRC
A single approach across all taxes for asking taxpayers and third parties for supplementary information.
As part of the changes, there will be
A new four-year time limit for assessments and claims
A reduction from six years for income tax, capital gains tax and corporation tax and an increase from three years for VAT
Reductions in extended assessment time limits
A streamlined process for closing corporation tax assessments
A new statutory ban on inspecting purely private dwellings without consent
A statutory requirement for HMRC to give at least seven days prior notice of a visit unless either an unannounced visit is necessary, or a shorter period is agreed
A new requirement that unannounced visits must be approved beforehand by a specially trained HMRC officer
A statutory requirement on HMRC to act reasonably
Check out the new rules in more detail at
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/e-learning/compliance-checks/Externalmodule/HTML/Externalmodule_menu.html
Tyas & company, Chartered Accountants, Crawley, West Sussex
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