Proposed government legislation will ban the use of deeds of assignment and introduce other measures to address problems with repayment agents – see https://claritaxnews.com/tax-admin/repayment-agents-hmrc-to-introduce-legislation-for-greater-control-for-taxpayers/
The ICAEW supports prohibiting the use of assignments but is concerned that this will close down or restrict the repayment agent market. HMRC should be promoting the availability of reliefs and making them easier to claim.
Among other matters, the ICAEW plans to discuss the following potential issues with HMRC:
- that the new transparency requirements in the HMRC Standard for agents should be satisfied by the ICAEW model engagement letters and that no new requirements would apply;
- that the approach to the registration for repayment agents, which will be set out in early 2023, does not lead to additional registration requirements for existing agents; and
- that changes to the existing agent authorisation processes are introduced with care.
Related content from Claritax Books
In Taxpayer Safeguards – Rights and Protections for Individuals, written by the late Robin Williamson and now updated by Keith Gordon, the authors explore the whole spectrum of protections available to individual taxpayers.
