IHTM29001 - Enquiry Procedures and yield: summary

HMRC has identified a number of areas we believe are important for the successful management of the enquiry work carried out in Compliance and Litigation. They are

• Risk assessing our cases
• Conducting background research
• Setting up and using an Enquiry Plan for cases that are taken up for enquiry
• Case direction when the enquiry is first set up
• Reviewing the progress of the enquiry
• Independently validating a selection of cases at closure

A case where there is a risk of loss of tax will be identified as part of the risk assessment ( IHTM07100) process. The risk assessor will decide whether the identified area of risk should be dealt with by amending the account ( IHTM08012), or by undertaking an enquiry ( IHTM29012).

This section of the manual will take you through the lifecycle of a case selected for enquiry, from the time it is allocated to an investigator through to the agreement of the correct tax liability. The instructions on dealing with an account selected for account amendment you can be found at section 8 ( IHTM08000) of this manual.

Work that is carried out by us may result in increases and decreases to tax and interest that need to be recorded as amendments to yield.

The guidance on yield in this section relates to the work done in both PC&S and Compliance.

The IT system used for enquiry work, the Enquiry Reporting System (ERS) ( IHTM29101), is complex and guidance on how to use this is given later in this section.