The above Statutory Instrument which deals with amendments to the 2006 regulations (“the principal regulations”) has now been published.

The principal regulations prescribe the descriptions of tax schemes which certain persons, normally the promoter of the scheme, are required to provide early information to HMRC. The amending regulations amend certain of the existing descriptions to improve their focus upon tax avoidance.

The two confidentiality descriptions and the premium fee description have been amended to remove “weaknesses” as identified by HMRC. The premium fee description is amended to remove certain unnecessary disclosures whilst the off market terms description is removed because HMRC consider that it is no longer necessary.

The newly published Statutory Instrument can be found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2834/contents/made and the relevant Explanatory Memorandum at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2834/pdfs/uksiem_20102834_en.pdf