Views sought on changes to uncertain tax treatment requirement

In the March 2020 Budget the government announced its intention to provide for a requirement for large businesses to notify HMRC where they have adopted an uncertain tax treatment.

In light of concerns raised in the consultation that followed HMRC decided to defer implementation so that it could discuss those concerns with stakeholders. To this end it has launched a second consultation. This seeks views on:

• the definition of uncertain tax treatment;
• the threshold for notification;
• exclusions from the requirement to notify; and
• the proposed penalty for non-compliance.

In essence the aim of the proposal remains unchanged – namely to identify and reduce tax losses caused by delays in identifying and resolving disagreements in how the law should be interpreted.

Legislation for the notification requirement will be included in Finance Bill 2021-22 and it will apply to transactions in returns due to be filed after April...