UK Government Amends Tax Disclosure Regulations

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

30 September 2004

The UK Government on Tuesday released details of an amendment to the regulations dealing with arrangements to avoid tax on income from employment as part of its new disclosure rules.

The Tax Avoidance Schemes (Prescribed Descriptions of Arrangements) Regulations 2004 set out the conditions for arrangements based on employment and financial products that must be disclosed.

According to the government, these types of schemes expose the Treasury to “substantial risk from serious tax avoidance.”

The amendment attempts to make it clear that there is no requirement to disclose straightforward tax planning advice, and as a result, seeks to introduce new filters to focus the requirement to disclose on innovative and sophisticated arrangements to gain a tax advantage, and amend the definition of a premium fee to clarify that the amount of the fee must be attributable to the tax advantage.

The Treasury’s new tax scheme disclosure rules, announced in this year's budget, came into effect on 1 August 2004. The requirement to make a disclosure will commence today (30 September 2004).

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