Alex Hardaker - CT&VAT (Chair)
Michael Christy - CT&VAT (Secretary)
Steve Coad – CT&VAT
Sebastian Hordern (CBI)
Graham Wheeler (IOD)
Ian Young (ICAEW)
Tom Duffy (ACCA)
Sacha Pertwee (CIOT)
Lakshmi Narain (CIOT)
Donald Drysdale (ICAS) – took part via telephone conference
2. HMRC gave an update on its work of exploring options to reduce the administrative burdens of complying with tax obligations.
3. HMRC said that its internal work of exploring the possibility of simplifying the rules for 'long' accounting periods for newly set up companies had continued and it aimed to present further details at the next meeting of CTOCC.
4. HMRC also gave an overview of possible ideas for simplifying the corporation tax regime more generally.
5. HMRC said that the proposed change in the law (Clause 32, Finance Bill 08) would apply to periods after 1 April 2008 and that it would not be retrospective.
6. HMRC outlined its proposed approach to handling open enquiry cases for periods before 1 April 2008 and said that it would write to all CTOCC members shortly with more details.
9. HMRC reminded the representatives about the recently published documents by the HMRC Review of Powers Team.
11. HMRC also said that this work covers three main areas of; compliance checks, penalties and payments, repayments and debts.
12. HMRC gave an introduction to its current web convergence project and said that its aim was that, in phases, and by 2011, all citizen facing content and services would be exclusively on the Directgov website, and all business facing content and services will be exclusively on the Businesslink website. Both sites were being designed around customer needs.
13. HMRC also said that over the next three years HMRC would need to rewrite, or at least review all of the web based material to ensure that is in a straightforward, customer focused style. Content would be re-written initially on the HMRC website before moving on to the Directgov and Businesslink sites. Content would also stay on HMRC’s website until 2011, but after then the residual content would only be the HMRC library of technical guidance and other material about the department and consultation documents.
14. HMRC said that corporation tax is the next topic for the web convergence project. While there were no plans to formally consult with representatives bodies, they would be happy to keep member of CTOCC in the picture and to receive any feedback.
15. HMRC thanked members for their input and advice on the proposed operational practice for large groups.
16. HMRC said that they did not envisage any problems with offering an operation practice to those businesses whose affairs are dealt with in Large Business Services, or the very largest groups dealt with in Local Compliance, where a Customer Manager or single point of contact has been allocated. However, it would not be possible to deliver anything similar for other medium-sized and large groups, where no such ring master is in place. Members confirmed that they would like HMRC to proceed, in spite of this limitation. HMRC agreed to do so and would report back to the next meeting.
17. There was a brief discussion about the proposed Common Consolidated Corporation Tax Base (CCCTB). Representatives said they would be interested in discussing any relevant CCCTB issues at future CTOCC meetings.
18. It was provisionally agreed to hold the next meeting in September 2008.
