Is HMRC really raising the threshold of anti-avoidance?
HMRC’s Lifting the Lid consultative paper was announced today.
By seeking to improve public information about tax avoidance schemes and widening the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) regime, will HMRC really decrease that identified 14% part of the perceived tax gap?
Fundamentally, HMRC’s options are either by way of tax legislative change or operational challenges by way of Code of Practice 8 enquiries.
Despite HMRC claims, this latest HMRC consultation, perhaps in itself a strategy, could back fire and send out a message that some tax planning schemes actually do work as long as they are correctly implemented.