Keep taxpayers informed during disputes, say MPs

HMRC is taking a sensible pragmatic approach in offering time-to-pay arrangements to taxpayers who applied to settle their involvement in contractor loan schemes said the House of Commons’ Treasury subcommittee in its report Disputing Tax. It covers two of the subcommittee’s inquiries – tax avoidance and evasion and the conduct of tax enquiries and the resolution of tax disputes.

On avoidance and evasion the report highlights the loan charge. Setting aside the policy behind the loan charge it concluded that allowing people to spread payment of the tax owed was a sensible administrative approach but the delay in clarification caused widespread anxiety and distrust of the contractor loan settlement opportunity (CLSO). MPs said HMRC should closely monitor its response times and report back to the subcommittee on the progress in providing settlement calculations. It should also update it on the number of cases...