ASB adopts ICAS recommendation on reporting
1 Sep 09
ICAS has welcomed the “three-tier” approach to financial reporting adopted by the UK’s Accounting Standards Board (ASB) for UK and Irish businesses. The Institute had strongly supported this model during the ASB’s consultation
HM Revenue & Customs should concentrate its limited resources on tax agents that make illegitimate claims and have an irresponsible attitude to the client work that they undertake.
That’s the recommendation from ICAS in its response to the HMRC consultation paper Modernising Powers, Deterrents and Safeguards: Working with Tax Agents.
ICAS has called on HMRC to put in place an effective framework which challenges sub-standard work from tax agents who are not members of professional bodies.
These agents offer little protection to the consumer, ICAS said. They are not monitored or regulated and have no requirement to keep their skills up to date, unlike members of professional bodies who are regulated, monitored and obliged to undertake continuous professional development.
The Institute agrees that HMRC needs to take effective and rapid action when there are serious attacks on the tax system by any tax agent, and has offered to discuss the possibility of additional powers to enable HMRC, in serious cases only, to exchange information at an earlier stage than is currently possible.
Derek Allen, pictured, the Institute’s director of taxation, said: “There is widespread anger amongst our members about the tone of this consultation document, which fails to differentiate between members of professional bodies and unaffiliated tax agents.
“That is a pity, because the objective of the process is one that the vast majority of agents share – raising the standard of tax returns. It would be sensible for HMRC to target their resources at the small minority of tax agents who seek to attack the tax system – that is where most money will be lost.
“To do this effectively, HMRC needs to develop a far stronger system for identifying and punishing bad agents. Working more effectively with Institutes like ICAS can free HMRC resources to target the small number of bad tax agents who do not belong to a professional body.”