8 Jun 2005

One of the more controversial proposals in the last budget was the proposal that taxpayers would have to notify the Inland Revenue when they set up certain types of schemes to reduce their tax bills.

The new regulations have been criticised for their lack of clarity and in response the Government has issued amendments to the original regulations. The Inland Revenue has now published amending regulations which clarify the disclosure requirements and which make it plain than straightforward tax planning advice is not included in the disclosure regulations.

The amendments can be downloaded from the Inland Revenue website. The Tax Avoidance Schemes (Prescribed Descriptions of Arrangements) (Amendment) Regulations 2004, which deals with tax planning exercises relating to employment, can be seen here
http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/si/2004-2429.pdf .