HMRC Working Together Group - 21 January 2009 - report back to TPVs

Statistics and service levels

Firstly, some facts: 78 per cent of all SDLT returns are now filed electronically. The target for this year is 85 per cent. Mark de Brunner confirmed that they recognize that 8 per cent will always file on paper and 2 per cent will be sent directly to Birmingham.
To ensure there is a better level of service Aspire are going to release a regular status report to the SDS team to keep them informed of the operational status of the backend servers.

SDLT-related legalities

It was agreed that it would be useful to publish on the web pages the top ten COP 10 rulings. Abnormal Rent was discussed and Mike Lyttle assured everyone that the final draft would be released in the next few days.

New Penalty Regime

They started by saying that HMRC now collects £423bn annually from 23m returns - and the time had come to standardize on a simple, fair interest and penalties regime.

There were two areas they were focussing on - late payment and late filing. He explained that both would incur fines which would grow, and both, could at any time, be converted to the criminal court if they felt it warranted it, although it was stressed that they would have a complete process to appeal any problem, with a clear distinction between genuine error and deliberate evasion.

It was confirmed that the goal was to deter late filing and payment, remove any advantage from withholding information and/or payment, and deter deliberate non-filing as per the recommendations of the O'Donnell report.

As for dates, it was agreed this regime would be in force for SDLT after April 2010, but would be fully retrospective.