EM3257 - Discovery: issuing discovery assessments: authorisation required for ETL assessments

Before you make Extended Time Limit (ETL) assessments they must be authorised by the appropriate Authorising Officer. This will normally be your manager, see CH282070.

If the case is within a project managed avoidance scheme, the technical lead (via the enquiry project manager where one has been appointed) should be consulted before ETL assessments are considered.

From 1 April 2010 an ETL assessment is

  • any assessment where the assessing time limit is anything other than the normal time limit, see CH52100 
  • any assessment where the time limit is extended to 12 years for income tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax involving offshore matters or offshore transfers.
    • the 12 year time limit only applies where the lost tax involves an offshore matter, see CH53520, or
    • offshore transfer which makes the loss of tax significantly harder for HMRC to identify, see CH53530 and CH53540.
  • any assessment where the normal time limit is extended up to 6 or 20 years because the underlying behaviour is either careless or deliberate, see CH53300 and CH53700
  • any assessment where the normal time limit is extended up to 20 years for failure to notify cases and avoidance schemes, see CH53600.

Operational Instructions for Caseworkers

You should request authorisation for ETL assessments by creating an AdHoc task on Caseflow or other case management system and send this to the Authorising Officer or Customer Relationship Management Module (CRMM). HMRC staff should follow the relevant Case Management Systems Guidance in the Customer Compliance Guidance Hub.

You must provide the Authorising Officer with evidence of the specific condition being relied on for assessment, including the behaviour that resulted in the loss of tax for each year or period for which you are requesting ETL assessments, if relevant. This should include:

  • what is being requested, e.g. 'ETL Authorisation'
  • the relevat year(s) or period(s)
  • the type of assessment/tax due
  • a brief description of the case
  • the amount of tax due
  • the behaviour

The evidence you hold of the person’s behaviour may apply across several years or periods, in which case you will need to explain this. If you have already recorded evidence of a person’s behaviour in NPPS for the purpose of authorising penalties, you can simply refer to NPPS in the Notes of your request.