Often accompanied by threats to repossess the taxpayer’s property and make them bankrupt, individuals are given 90 days to pay the APN, with no right of appeal.
However, last May London-based law firm RPC won a landmark ruling which found that HMRC was wrong to issue APNs to taxpayers under the employee benefit trust (EBT) arrangements, meanwhile a lawsuit in 2015 questioned the legality of the penalty system.
In December 2016, UK accountancy firm Moore Stephens revealed that HMRC has withdrawn 4,300 APNs after sending them out in error.
“When we get into this highly penetrative area of disclosures and explain to the authorities what you’re doing. It is very important that everyone should have complete faith that everything works as it’s intended. HMRC have had an almost gold period – upwards of 20 years – of tackling tax avoidance but there are embarrassing mistakes beginning to emerge,” Bull concluded.
