EM1855 - Working the enquiry: meetings: how to bring a meeting to a close

At the end of the meeting, it is vital that the taxpayer leaves knowing exactly where they stand. Your conclusions and what you tell the taxpayer will depend on the stage you are at in the enquiry.

If there is likely to be additional liability, you will need to explain how you arrived at this decision. You will also need to explain what further information you may need from them and what they need to do next in terms of co-operation, payments on account and avoiding a future inaccuracies. You will also need to consider whether it may be more convenient to settle any additional liabilities using a contract settlement or by amendments/assessments.

Make it clear to the taxpayer the extent of any additional information you will need, for example all private bank and building society accounts. The taxpayer should know what has to be provided to you and within what timescale in order to maintain the momentum of the enquiry. You should agree a realistic timetable for the provision of information. These should be provided within days, third party details and computations will obviously take longer.

On your part, you should undertake to deal with matters promptly on behalf of HMRC and to keep them fully informed as you move towards the conclusion of your enquiry.

To ensure that there cannot be any misunderstanding you should follow up with a letter, as soon as possible after the meeting, setting out the details required and timetable for sending in documents. You should also include anything which you have promised, such as interest calculations. Where possible you should also send the taxpayer a copy of the meeting notes at the same time but these can follow separately if their attachment would delay the follow-up letter.

What do I do when I have addressed all the risks?

As you build up information about the relevant facts and address the individual risks, you will need to decide whether you should continue with your enquiries. You should never continue with your enquiry just avoid a nil settlement. Whether and when to continue should be determined by the Litigation and Settlement Strategy, see CH40000.

If the information provided enables you to accept that the return is accurate, you should tell the taxpayer there and then and conclude the enquiry as soon as possible after the end of the meeting.

In many cases you will not need to hold a settlement meeting with the taxpayer, see EM1860 where the settlement you are seeking can be explained to the taxpayer over the telephone or in writing.

A settlement meeting will not be necessary where the following apply

• the taxpayer has been given the appropriate penalty factsheets and you have fully explained your view of the taxpayer’s culpability and they understand this explanation
• you have fully explained how you arrived at the tax, interest and penalties
• where it is appropriate to settle by contract settlement, the taxpayer knows what offer you consider appropriate and is prepared to make that offer and you are satisfied that the taxpayer has sufficient means
• you have discussed future compliance.

If you have discussed settlement proposals at the meeting or have held a separate settlement meeting, see EM1860, you should have already agreed the basis for settlement and be prepared to issue any amendments or assessments or enter into a contract settlement as soon as possible after the end of the meeting.

For a summary of ‘top tips’ for face to face meetings, see EM1865.