understanding tax offices

Local compliance offices are responsible for most taxpayers' income tax, corporation tax and PAYE/NI affairs. each year HMRC conducts about 200,000 enquiries into the affairs of personal taxpayers and another 50,000 into companies.

the Special Investigations (SI) Office

The Special Investigation Office (SI), formerly Special Compliance Office (SCO/SCI), is the specialist investigation unit of the HM Revenue & Customs.  It handles complex tax cases of individuals and companies including larger cases of suspected serious tax fraud and is also responsible for conducting criminal prosecutions.

SI deals with the most serious cases of tax avoidance and evasion. In most cases however, prosecutions do not occur. the SI then has responsibility for negotiating financial settlements.

special evasion teams

Since 2007, HMRC have set up new teams, overseen by SI offices, to tackle tax evasion.  they are targeting specific groups of people and encouraging them to come forward and declare their untaxed income.

The first schemes were for people with Offshore accounts.  They were invited to come forward using the Offshore Disclosure Facility (ODF) and then the New Disclosure Opportunity (NDO).

Between 2009 and 2015 the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF) enables people with assets in Liechtenstein to declare income held overseas and pay a reduced amount of tax, and a fixed penalty of 10%.   This is a good opportunity for individuals to tidy up their tax affairs, even if funds are not currently held in Liechtenstein.

HMRC are also targeting UK businesses which they suspect have not paid the correct amount of tax.  First were the doctors and dentists, then were the plumbers.  this strategy is likely to continue with HMRC targeting groups of people to come forward using lower rates of taxes and/or penalties to make the facilities attractive.

CIF Offices

The traditional way for HMRC to deal with serious tax investigations is by undertaking a Code of Practice 9 Procedure which is also known as the CIF (Criminal Investigation of Fraud) procedure.  Since the introduction of the disclosure facilities (see above), this procedure has become less common although most often used at CIF level for people who did not take advantage of the disclosure facilities when they were available.

CIF offices have operated since 2005 as part of the Local Tax offices. These are now the principal offices which run Code of Practice 9 cases where the duties are expected to be £75,000-£500,000. only the largest and most serious of cases will be run by SI. 

Cameron Baum is ideally placed to act for you in respect of investigations carried out by the CIF Teams. uniquely, we have many years of experience dealing with inspectors from local districts and SI, precisely the mix of team that make up the CIF teams.

Handling the disclosure facilities including the LDF and the industry specific tax plans requires careful analysis and experience in handling these matters.  Investigations which are undertaken by the CIF teams and SI are a highly specialised area. Cameron Baum is one of only a handful of firms in the country with relevant experience and proven success of dealing with such matters.