SAM21010 - Assessments: revenue amendment: jeopardy amendment

A jeopardy amendment is made to a taxpayer’s self assessment during a S9A enquiry if there is reason to believe that the subsequent settlement of the additional liability may be in jeopardy. For example, you may become aware that the taxpayer has plans to leave the country, or is disposing of assets. It may be made where

  • The taxpayer type is individual or trust
  • There is an open S9A enquiry
  • The enquiry produces evidence indicating that the self assessment is inadequate

And

  • There is reason to believe that the failure to make a payment on account of the additional liability could result in a loss of tax

The amendment to the self assessment should be recorded on the taxpayer’s SA record as follows

  • If the return for the year has been fully captured and any omissions or understatements can be related to a specific box - use function AMEND RETURN FOR ENQUIRY
  • Otherwise - use function CREATE RETURN CHARGE FOR ENQUIRY

The charge will be reflected on the taxpayer’s statement with the description ‘Enquiry amendment for YY/YY’.

When you create or amend the return charge the following year’s SA payments on account will also be adjusted to reflect the revised liability.

Notes:

1. If a claim to adjust payments on account has already been recorded for this following year, there is unlikely to be any change to the amounts displayed in function VIEW STATEMENT. These amounts are the Taxpayer amounts, resulting from the taxpayer’s claim. To view the revised Revenue amounts you would need to use function MAINTAIN PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT
   
2. For 1998-99 and earlier years, if you use function AMEND RETURN FOR ENQUIRY any amount of notional tax in box W44 (G61, L66 or F66) of the Calculation Working Sheet will not be taken into account automatically. You should enter the amount from box W44 (G61, L66 or F66) in the Notional Tax / Tax Credits field in function CREATE RETURN CHARGE FOR ENQUIRY for the same year. Do not alter any other amounts. This will not affect the liability, but may affect the application of the 80 per cent rule for deciding if payments on account are due for the following year, and will cancel them if they are not due

Appeal

The taxpayer may appeal against the jeopardy amendment and apply for the resulting charge to be formally postponed. The appeal should not be settled until after the enquiry is complete, but the postponement application should be dealt with by the office handling the appeal. See subjects ‘Handling an Appeal Against a Charge Based Item’ (SAM10060) and ‘Handling a Formal Standover’ (SAM11060).

If the taxpayer makes a postponement application, you should also consider informally standing over the relevant amounts of the following year’s payments on account that were adjusted following the recording of the jeopardy amendment, if applicable.

Partnerships

There is no statutory right to make a jeopardy amendment on a partnership.

Instead, a jeopardy amendment is made on the partner, to reflect the additional tax falling on the partner from the potential amendment to the partnership statement.

The amendment can only be made on an individual who is a partner, where there is an open S9A enquiry on the partner for the same tax year.

The amendment can only be made on a company which is a partner, if the accounting period ends on or after 01/07/99 and there is an open enquiry under FA1998, Sch 18, Para 24. You must liaise with the Inspector dealing with the company accounts.

In some cases a jeopardy amendment will therefore be made on one, or some partners, but not on others.