i WILL NOT LIE This may be the best bit of good news from the 2020 budget if the Government do the right thing and stop the malaise of inappropriate and unqualified tax agents. I pray that they will listen to the main Professional bodies who meticulously maintain the standards of members. At present however anyone can call themselves an accountant where you need a licence to do just about anything else including Bookies, Driving instructors and so on.
Budget 2020: Gov’t to review tax advice ‘standards’
The government will publish a ‘call for evidence’ in the spring ‘on raising standards for tax advice’.
By William Robins11 Mar, 2020
A review into tax advice will kick off this spring, Budget documents have revealed.
Under the heading ‘raising standards in the market for tax advice’, Treasury documents say the government will publish a ‘call for evidence’ in the spring ‘on raising standards for tax advice’.
This will seek evidence about providers of tax advice, current standards upheld by tax advisers and the effectiveness of the government’s efforts to support those standards, in order to give taxpayers more assurance that the advice they are receiving is reliable.
In his Budget speech, chancellor Rishi Sunak said extra funding would be given to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to tackle aggressive tax avoidance, in a bid to ‘secure £4.4bn of additional revenue’.
Budget documents reveal this extra funding will cost £55m in 2019/20 tax year rising to £280m the following tax year, with up to £595m being spent by 2024/25.
According to Budget documents, HMRC will publish ‘a new ambitious strategy for tackling the promoters of tax avoidance schemes’.
‘This will outline the range of policy, operational and communications interventions both underway and in development to drive those who promote tax avoidance schemes out of the market, disrupt the supply chain to stop the spread of marketed tax avoidance, and deter taxpayers from taking up the schemes.’
