Direct taxes approach to appeals more effective, says CIOT

Responding to HMRC’s consultation on improving HMRC’s approach to dispute resolution the CIOT sets out its support for the alignment of appeals processes across direct and indirect taxes thus helping reduce confusion and misunderstanding caused by different rules and procedures – particularly for disputes which run over multiple taxes. The Institute notes that moving all taxes onto the direct appeals process would in many cases allow more time for resolution by agreement.

HMRC’s consultation took a different approach more akin to alignment on the basis of the current indirect taxes model which the CIOT does not support: ‘The existing indirect process leaves little time for further discussion once HMRC have issued their formal decision unless the review period can be extended (which is not straightforward). It is often the case that even at this stage there can still be uncertainty and misunderstandings over...