The announcement was made in the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget 2023 this week, under a section on tackling promoters of tax avoidance. Hunt’s Budget also stated the government will ‘double the maximum sentences for the most egregious forms of tax fraud from seven to 14 years’.
Ashurst tax partner Nicholas Gardner said: ‘There are already significant financial penalties of up to £100,000 (increasing to £1m in certain circumstances) for failure to comply with these notices and it seems premature to assess whether criminal sanctions are required for enforcement purposes.
‘However, introducing the consultation measures would further raise the stakes for promoters issued with these notices and deter breaches. Now the question is how much progress HMRC will make in issuing further stop notices in the coming months as these enforcement tools will only be as effective as HMRC's implementation of the scheme by the issue of stop notices.’
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