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Advance Tax Certainty Service

ATCS02400 - Advance Tax Certainty Service: Eligibility and Scope: Who is excluded from applying for a clearance?

Public bodies such as government departments and local authorities may not use the service

Customers who have committed fraud under statute or common law are excluded.

Examples of customers that are excluded from the process include, but are not limited to, those who:

  • have committed the common law offence of cheating the public revenue
  • have committed an offence under the law consisting of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of tax
  • have been recently liable to a penalty under Section 69C of the VAT Act 1994, or Section 25 of the Finance Act 2003
  • have received a deliberate penalty under Schedule 24 of the Finance Act 2007 or Schedule 41 of the Finance Act 2008
  • have entered into or carried out arrangements that are abusive under the meaning given in Section 207 of the Finance Act 2013, or where adjustments have been made under Section 209 of the same act
  • have incurred a defeat in respect of notifiable tax arrangements under Schedule 17 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2017 (DASVOIT) or Part 7 of the Finance Act 2004 (DOTAS)
  • are under the Special Measures regime (Finance Act 2016)
  • have admitted to deliberate underpayment of tax under Code of Practice 8 or Code of Practice 9 proceedings
  • have reached agreement with a prosecutor under a Deferred Prosecution Agreement

Customers who have received a penalty under any of the above, or a deliberate, or deliberate and concealed penalty in respect of their tax affairs, are automatically disbarred from using this clearance service for a minimum of 5 years from the date at which they are entered into the Special Measures regime or received a penalty.

This list is not exhaustive.