CH180120 - Dishonest tax agents: reason for the legislation
Tax agents are people who, as part of their business, assist other people with their tax affairs. They perform a vital role in the tax system because we are able to rely on the accuracy of most returns due to the work done by tax agents to ensure that the returns are correct.
However, there are a small number of dishonest tax agents, whose actions can affect a larger group of people. We need to
- identify what is dishonest conduct
- penalise dishonest conduct when it occurs
- reward co-operation and disclosure
- identify the scale of dishonesty, and
- recover the lost tax.
The powers in Schedule 38 to FA2012 help us to do this.