SDLTM80590 - Compliance: Rights and obligations

Enquiries FA03/SCH10/PART3

An officer of the Board may enquire into any

• land transaction return
• amendment of a land transaction return

There is no statutory definition of an enquiry so it carries its normal dictionary meaning of `seeking information, asking, questioning'. See SDLTM80800+.

Although most enquiries will be risk-based selections, some enquiries will be randomly selected nationally. See SDLTM72000+.

The compliance caseworker’s duty is to apply the law to the facts which they encounter.

A compliance caseworker must aim for consistency of treatment between purchasers. This can be difficult to achieve in an organisation like HM Revenue & Customs, where authority is delegated.

Any technical issue which is novel or about which there is uncertainty should be submitted to the appropriate technical specialist at Head Office.

Any case within the compliance field where it seems likely that a compliance caseworker’s action may lead to inconsistent treatment between purchasers or groups of purchasers should be submitted (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000).

Cases where a proposed course of action is novel and the circumstances in which it is to be applied are unusually sensitive should also be submitted. In either case a copy of the compliance caseworker’s report should be sent to their compliance manager.

Stamp duty land tax enquiries will normally be worked by Stamp Office staff. However enquiries may be made by any officer of the Board.

If a request is received from another part of the department to enquire into a stamp duty land tax transaction the matter must be referred to a compliance manager.

A compliance caseworker should never make any statement, written or oral, which might be interpreted as granting an amnesty to a particular group or class of purchaser. Such a statement, even if intended to apply to just a few purchasers, could inhibit the freedom of action of the Board, or colleagues in other local offices or specialist agencies.

If the Stamp Office makes no enquiries within the period allowed, or if an enquiry has been completed, the land transaction return becomes final unless

• there was fraudulent or negligent conduct in making the return
• the Stamp Office discovers that the return was incorrect and the purchaser had not disclosed enough information to show this

In those cases the Stamp Office can make an assessment under FA03/SCH10PARA28. See SDLTM84210.