Helpful? New Chancellor George Osborne.

HMRC has already been severely criticised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants for the make-up of its proposals in draft legislation called Tax Agents and Deliberate Wrongdoing, because the accountancy body believes the legislation defines almost anyone in the financial system as a ‘tax agent’, while it classes any tax planning, including using government incentives, as ‘deliberate wrongdoing’.

As it stands, potential offenders would be subject to a minimum personal penalty of £5,000 while HMRC could seize all their client-related documents and papers to look for further evidence of supposed wrongdoing.

Tax adviser Mark Stone, manager at Intertrust Reads Private Clients in Guernsey, said it was no surprise that the proposals had not been well received and local professionals were wary of the latest developments.

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