Tax avoidance disclosure - New developments

1 August 2006

New tax avoidance disclosure regime came into effect.

5 December 2005

The Chancellor announces in the Pre-Budget Report changes to be effective from April 2006: a review of the ‘filters’, the extension of TAD across all of CT, IT and CGT and the reduction to 30 days of the period for disclosure of in-house regimes.

November 2005

Publication of National Insurance Bill and draft Regulations extending the TAD regime to National Insurance.

1 August 2005

The Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) tax avoidance disclosure regulations come into force.

20 July 2005

Royal Assent to F(2)A 2005, containing changes to VAT disclosure regime.

15 July 2005

HMRC issues revised main guidance for direct taxes.

9 June 2005

Start date for Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) put back to 1 August.

18 May 2005

Amended procedure introduced for notifying in-house schemes.

1 April 2005

The Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise are merged to form HM Revenue & Customs, promising a consistent approach across both direct and indirect taxes. Different disclosure rules, however, still apply to direct taxes and VAT.

1 April 2005

Inland Revenue issues revised draft guidance for disclosure regime.

24 March 2005

Draft regulations published to extend avoidance disclosure regime to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT).

16 March 2005

Various further anti-avoidance measures announced in the Budget, including proposals to extend disclosure to Stamp Duty Land Tax The VAT disclosure rules to be extended with two new “listed” schemes and a new “hallmark” of avoidance..

December 2004

Pre-Budget Report brings in a number of changes to the tax rules as a result of the disclosures made since inception of the Tax Avoidance Disclosure rules.

7 October 2004

New regulations tabled to deal with the issue of Legal Professional Privilege (LPP). The procedures have support from the Law Society and essentially say that marketed schemes do not have LPP (as no adviser/client relationship has been established) but if LPP is established and asserted in an advisory situation., then the disclosure obligation passes to the client, with the five day timescale.

17 September 2004

Amendments to the 22 July 2004 Regulations are published. These introduce new filters better targeting “innovative and sophisticated arrangements”, and amend the definition of premium fee to clarify that the amount of the fee must be attributable to the tax advantage.