CH177130 - Sanctionable conduct by tax advisers: file access notice: what the file access notice must contain
Our request in the file access notice must be reasonable. A file access notice can specify relevant documents to be provided, or it can globally request all relevant documents, which are within that person’s possession or power.
In Case A circumstances (see CH177020), the file access notice must identify the clients of the tax adviser in relation to whom relevant documents are to be provided. The notice may identify those clients by reference to a class or description of clients (rather than by name). In Case A circumstances, we cannot simply request relevant documents in relation to all the adviser’s clients, unless we have reasonable grounds to suspect the adviser has engaged in sanctionable conduct with every client.
A file access notice may require the documents to be provided
- within a specified period
- by certain means
- in a particular form
- to a particular person, and
- to a particular place.
A person may comply with a file access notice by providing copies of the requested relevant documents, unless the file access notice states that it requires only original documents.
See CH177230 for guidance on how long we can hold the documents received under a file access notice.