Inland Revenue Issues 'Plain English' Warning To Tax Planners

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

14 April 2004

Following last month's UK budget announcement that accounting firms and other tax-planners will be required to tell the Inland Revenue about any schemes they sell to individuals and companies, the Inland Revenue has issued a further warning.

Concerned that some tax advisors may attempt to disguise the true nature of tax planning schemes being offered to clients in layers of 'legalese', the tax authority revealed that details of the shelters must be submitted to it in "plain English".

"A small number of promoters will, we expect, expend time and money in trying to disguise the scheme under layers of detail - so promoters will be expected to comply by providing a plain English description of the scheme," it confirmed at the weekend.

This comes hot on the heels of the failure of an attempt by the UK's tax professionals to persuade the Treasury to publish a list of acceptable tax avoidance schemes, which means that they will be required to notify all tax-planning arrangements to the Inland Revenue.

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