Plans for a DOTAS hallmark extension risk casting net too wide

10 Mar 2016

Plans to extend the hallmark regulations for the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes (DOTAS) regime risk casting too wide a net and capturing straightforward tax planning, warns Chris Williams, senior manager, national tax team at Mazars and chair of CIOT's succession taxes sub-committee

When the seeds of the disclosure of tax avoidance schemes (DOTAS) regime were first sown the government may have thought they included the acorn from which a mighty oak would grow.

But since then the result, variegated by the general anti abuse rule (GAAR), follower notices and accelerated payment notices (APNs), has come to resemble an impenetrable thicket whose thorns now include heavy penalties for non-observance.

The government has even felt the need to include harsher penalties for non-compliance with the GAAR in the draft Finance Bill 2016 clauses despite no compliance failures having been recorded yet.

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