Following yesterday's Budget, Dawn Register, partner in the Tax Dispute Resolution at BDO, commented: "A popular message for voters is the ongoing campaign against 'serial tax avoiders'. The difficulty will be defining who is a caught by these new rules, and legislation with retrospective effect always leaves a nasty taste even if most people agree with the measures. There is a consistent theme of increasing powers for HMRC. Further legislation in this area will only impact a tiny portion of taxpayers, however HMRC will hope it sends out a deterrent message to other taxpayers who may be tempted to artificially reduce their tax bills.
"Naming and shaming proposals seem rather redundant when the media to do such a good job at exposing people who use avoidance schemes! Alongside avoiders, there are measures to beef up the powers to expose promoters of aggressive tax avoidance schemes. Ultimately HMRC will want many of these boutique firms to go out of business and to warn people off using such schemes."
