Raising The Stakes Part 3 – Accelerated Payment Notices

The accelerated payment notice provisions are in Chapter 3 of Part 4 of the Finance (No.2) Bill (clauses 212 - 222).

In the original consultation document, published on 12 August 2013 entitled "Raising the Stakes on Tax Avoidance", HMRC mooted the possibility of issuing accelerated payment notices (APNs), but only in the context of follower notices. In other words HMRC could not issue an APN unless a taxpayer had been issued with a follower notice.

However, in their subsequent consultation document published on 24 January 2014 entitled "Tackling Marketed Tax Avoidance", HMRC proposed that issuing an APN could be freestanding (ie not necessarily linked to the issue of a follower notice).

And the provisions of Chapter 3 are evidence of this. HMRC can give an APN to a person (P) if three conditions are met:

HMRC are enquiring into P's return or claim, or P has made a tax appeal which has not been determined. The return or appeal is on the basis that a particular tax advantage results from the arrangements that P has entered into. One or more of the following requirements are...