HMRC has published the outcome of an internal review of its powers to uphold standards for agents in the tax advice market. The report concludes that HMRC uses all options to secure positive outcomes where poor tax agent behaviours are found. However, more could be done to bring consistency to HMRC’s relationship with tax agents and, by improving analysis of patterns of behaviour, resources could be better targeted at the worst behaviours and better use could be made of existing powers.
The four actions HMRC will take to support good tax agents and to continue to tackle poor tax agent behaviours are:
Publishing an approach to tax agents in a single policy statement, including how to report breaches of the agent standard.
Updating and publicising the agent standard.
Continuing to ensure consistency across HMRC in its overall approach to agents.
Focusing efforts to uphold its agent standard on the worst agent behaviours.
HMRC has published the outcome of an internal review of its powers to uphold standards for agents in the tax advice market. The report concludes that HMRC uses all options to secure positive outcomes where poor tax agent behaviours are found. However, more could be done to bring consistency to HMRC’s relationship with tax agents and, by improving analysis of patterns of behaviour, resources could be better targeted at the worst behaviours and better use could be made of existing powers.
The four actions HMRC will take to support good tax agents and to continue to tackle poor tax agent behaviours are:
Publishing an approach to tax agents in a single policy statement, including how to report breaches of the agent standard.
Updating and publicising the agent standard.
Continuing to ensure consistency across HMRC in its overall approach to agents.
Focusing efforts to uphold its agent standard on the worst agent behaviours.
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