Compliance Reform Forum
The Compliance Reform Forum (CRF) is a joint forum in which HMRC consults and communicates with representative organisations about changes to HMRC compliance checking activities, with a particular focus on the views of tax agents and their clients.
External membership
| Current members | organisation |
|---|---|
| AAT | Association of Accounting Technicians |
| ACCA | Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants |
| ATT | Association of Taxation Technicians |
| CIOT | Chartered Institute of Taxation |
| CIPP | Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals |
| FSB | Federation of Small Businesses |
| ICAEW | Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales |
| ICAI | Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland |
| ICAS | Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland |
| IFA | Institute of Financial Accountants |
| LITRG | Low Incomes Tax Reform Group |
| TA | Tax Aid |
| TIPG | Tax Investigation Practitioners Group |
Terms of reference
Purpose
The CRF is a joint forum in which HMRC consults and communicates with representative organisations about changes to HMRC compliance checking activities, with a particular focus on the views of tax agents and their clients.
Specifically the purpose of the CRF is to:
- act as the main point of engagement with agent representatives on all new and changed compliance initiatives whenever possible
- seek representative body input into the design and delivery of new compliance checking activities
- provide early notice of compliance activities and information about these
- help representative bodies to explain new and changed compliance checking activities to their members so that they can fulfil their obligations to clients
- monitor and feedback on the effectiveness of compliance processes and consider any post-implementation issues arising as a result of compliance changes
- provide a greater understanding of HMRC’s compliance strategy and how this contributes towards both HMRC’s Vision and Your Charter
Membership
The standing membership will consist of representatives from HMRC and the professional bodies for accountants, tax practitioners and payroll professionals and other customer representative groups.
Subject to discussion between the chair and standing members, other trade bodies and business representatives may be invited to meetings on an ad hoc basis as appropriate.
Meetings
HMRC will provide the chair and secretariat functions. Meetings will take place quarterly but may be called at other times if required.
The timing and length of meetings will be flexible, taking into account the nature of the subjects under consideration. Prior to each meeting, HMRC will issue a draft agenda. All members may suggest further items for inclusion. HMRC will aim to issue a final agenda for each meeting 10 days before the date of the meeting.
A draft record of each meeting will be circulated within 15 working days of each meeting for comment. The final record of each meeting will be published on the GOV.UK website.
Governance
The CRF is one of a number of HMRC consultative forums for businesses, agents and representative bodies. It is not a decision-making body. Final decisions remain the responsibility of HMRC. The CRF will be chaired by the Director General, Enforcement and Compliance who is a member of the HMRC Executive Committee.
As appropriate, the CRF may establish formal sub-groups or working parties to deal with specific compliance projects or issues. Membership of these may differ from the main CRF body. As issues are resolved, the appropriate sub-group or working party will be stood down.
Reports of the issues covered within these sub-groups and any recommendations reached will be provided to the CRF.
Confidentiality
All information and papers that HMRC shares with CRF members will be shared in confidence unless they are already in the public domain or confidentiality restrictions have been expressly lifted. External representatives on CRF may consult in confidence with other members of their body or group in order to provide a truly representative view.
Exceptionally, HMRC may wish to consult on something which is particularly sensitive and where premature disclosure could seriously prejudice a Government initiative or affect commercial interests. In these circumstances HMRC may want to engage with individuals on a more restricted individual basis and subject to a stringent confidentiality undertaking. HMRC will not deem external representatives of CRF to be speaking on behalf of their body or group unless they are able to consult with colleagues.
Review of CRF
The operation, terms of reference and membership of CRF, its sub-groups or working parties will be periodically reviewed to ensure that it continues to meet its aims and objectives.
Meeting minutes
The forum meets quarterly.
Archived minutes
You can view previous minutes on The National Archives web pages: