HMRC have published the first set regulations needed to support the High Risk Promoters legislation. The draft regulations have been published for technical consultation and are designed to exclude two types of persons from the definition of ‘promoter’.

The two exclusions being considered are namely;

• a company that provides in-house taxation services to companies in the same group and is not in any sense marketing tax avoidance schemes to the public; and
• an adviser (such as a lawyer or accountant) who provides advice on a discrete point of law or accountancy but is not involved in the overall design of the tax avoidance scheme.

These regulations are classed as relieving and thus will have retrospective effect - from the date of Royal Assent of the Finance Act (17 July 2014). Comments thereon were due to HMRC by Friday 31 October.