22 January 2018
If your business has had an assessment, penalty or is in an ongoing dispute on a technical matter with HMRC, then have you considered ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution)?
Ordinarily, a dispute with HMRC would either conclude after a formal review process or tax tribunal.
Formal reviews do not always produce positive results and Tax Tribunals are formal affairs and expensive. Mediation (ADR) is different, it is more informal, face-to-face and cheaper than tribunal.
An ADR meeting involves the taxpayer and the decision maker from HMRC. Even if ADR fails, it can help focus and narrow the issue ahead of Tribunal.
Statistics.
In financial year 2016/17 there were 1,250 ADR cases of which 559 were VAT based. Successful resolutions achieved were 72%, partial success 14% and 14% ended with no resolution.
These statistics indicate a greater chance of success than Tribunal or formal review.
We have now been involved in numerous ADR cases and we have had great success in achieving our clients objectives. Penalties or assessments being cut or cancelled, technical points which affect the business being resolved after months of back and forth communications from HMRC.
If you are going around in circles with HMRC or a matter has been dragging on longer that it should have been, it might be that your issue is suitable for ADR. If so, the chances of success, according to both HMRC statistics and our own experiences are good and therefore you should consider ADR as a way to close off and resolve an issue with HMRC.
Don’t leave this to chance, so speak to your advisors or speak to us, our VAT and Tax advice is not as expensive as you think. VAT.tamworth@hwca.com
