Last month HMRC were seeking the feedback of our members in respect of various HMRC powers introduced since 2012, as part of the work being undertaken by the Powers and Safeguards evaluation forum. It is intended that the outcome of the review will be a report published in late May 2020.

By way of reminder this forum was established in October 2019 in response to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury’s written ministerial statement of July 2019 and is a direct outcome of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report “The Powers of HMRC: Treating Taxpayers Fairly”.

The powers being reviewed are those introduced since 2012 which are not either subject to a separate review or they have only recently been introduced meaning there is little experience of their use.

Deep dives are being performed on the following:-

• Cross-border information exchange – Common Reporting Standard data
• The General Anti-Abuse rule
• Accelerated Payments and Follower Notices
• Large businesses required to publish their tax strategies
• Banking code of conduct
• Diverted profits tax charging notice
• Requirement to correct offshore non-compliance
• The 2 Corporate criminal offence of failing to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion

Once evidence has been collected, the forum will meet to discuss specific powers in detail. These discussions will then form the basis of the report prepared by HMRC.