Inland Revenue Official Speaks of Desire To Create 'Avoidance-Proof' Legislation

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

24 May 2004

In an interview with Accountancy Age last week, head of the UK Inland Revenue's Special Investigations section, Paul Clark attempted to calm the furore which has been created by the government's new tax shelter disclosure rules.

Under the new regulations, tax advisers will be obliged to provide details of tax minimisation schemes to the Inland Revenue within five days of their implementation, or face a fine of up to £5,000.

However, Mr Clark told the news service that his department is more interested in creating "avoidance-proof" legislation than in pursuing users of older avoidance schemes after the event.

"Very experienced inspectors are using their skills to feed into new legislation to try and make it avoidance-proof from the outset," he explained.

He went on to add that the tax authority was willing to listen to concerns with regard to the new approach to tackling tax sheltering, suggesting that:

"If we are setting out to do something that does not work, then business has an opportunity to tell us."

According to Mr Clark, the department which will be handling the registration and monitoring of tax planning schemes, the Avoidance Intelligence Unit, will hopefully be in place "within a month".

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