Call for evidence on tax advisers’ standards

The government has published a document asking for suggestions on how to raise and maintain high standards of competence in the tax advice market to protect consumers and improve compliance.

HMRC notes that the Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT) operates for advisers who belong to some professional bodies. It also refers to its own standard for agents (tinyurl.com/hmrcsfa18) which it ‘expects agents to adhere to’. However it is concerned that there is no market-wide competence requirement or code of ethics – other than the HMRC standard – and has been discussing ways to raise standards with the profession. It considers that issues arising from failing to meet those standards have been highlighted by the findings of the independent review into the loan charge (tinyurl.com/ilcrresdec19).

The document contains suggestions on how HMRC could tackle what it considers poor performance by advisers. These include the...