Tribunals Reform
The Tribunals Courts and Enforcement Act, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), received Royal Assent on 19 July 2007. Tribunals Reform will result in a combined independent tribunal for all tax appeals. The existing Commissioners and Tribunals used by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will be replaced from April 2009 by the First-tier and Upper Tribunals administered by the MoJ.
The consultation document HM Revenue & Customs and the taxpayer: tax appeals against decisions made by HMRC was published as part of the Pre-Budget Report on 9 October 2007. Alongside the Budget on 12 March 2008 HMRC published a ‘Summary of Responses and Future Direction’ which has taken into account the views of our stakeholders and their 42 written responses and sets out HMRC’s future intentions. HMRC is committed to introducing a more consistent process of internal reviews and is looking to implement this at the same time as tax tribunal reform in April 2009.
Project aims
The aims of the Tribunals Reform Project are:
- to implement Tribunals Reform within HMRC
- to introduce an impartial internal review process
- to make the disputes process more consistent and harmonised
- to provide a better customer experience
Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
HMRC is working closely with the MoJ on all aspects of Tribunals Reform. The MoJ were represented at nearly all HMRC consultation meetings. Their consultation document Transforming Tribunals: implementing part 1 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 ran from 28 November 2007 to 22 February 2008. We share the common goal of successful Tribunals Reform implementation in April 2009.
