 Withdrawal of the misdirection concession
For over 30 years, HMRC has applied a concession based on a parliamentary statement made by Robert Sheldon MP in 1978. Under the concession, if an HMRC officer, in possession of the full facts of a case, gave a clear and unequivocal ruling on VAT in writing or misled a registered person to his or her detriment, any assessment of VAT due was based on the correct ruling from the date the error was brought to the registered person’s attention. Revenue & Customs Brief 15/09 announced that HMRC will not accept any further claims of misdirection under this concession after 1 April 2009.
HMRC says that the concession has been superseded by more recent guidance. However, the guidance is not as clear as the concession – only time will tell if the position adopted by HMRC in such cases remains the same. The ‘misunderstanding’ concession in Notice 48 remains, and businesses should consider seeking remission of any under declared VAT where the criteria are met.
Please click here to contact us for more advice.
Keep up-to-date with our VAT news by registering for our email alert. Click here to register.
|