AH0925 - Commissioners’ Hearing: Expert Evidence: Reports to Head Office

In any case where:

1. a notification is received, whether formal or informal, that the appellant proposes to call expert evidence

or

2. you consider that an expert witness should be called for the HMRC,

a report should be made immediately to Central Policy: Tax Administration Policy. Initial contact should be made by telephone (see Contacts). Central Policy: Tax Administration Policy, will tell you if a full submission is needed and whether they need to see the papers.

However, where the appeal concerns Capital Gains Tax, for example, only or main residence permitted area provisions, valuation of land, goodwill or unquoted shares, ill-health retirement claims, the report should be made to CGT (Solihull) following the procedures described in the Capital Gains Tax Manual.

See also AH0920 where advice has been received from an Accountancy Unit.

In England and Wales, if an appellant introduces (or attempts to introduce) expert evidence at an appeal hearing without prior notice, you should object to its admission and seek an adjournment to enable the statutory requirements to be properly carried out.

In applying the instructions above, you should distinguish evidence of fact given by an accountant (for example, about the preparation of particular accounts, access to bank accounts, the state or quality of the books and records maintained by the client) from his opinion on matters of accountancy principle, which would be expert evidence.