As soon as you believe that you have grounds to appeal the tax, interest or penalties that HMRC says you owe, it is time to seek expert advice. VAT specialist advisers can bring expertise and resource to stretched tax and finance departments, facilitate decision-making and optimise outcomes.
Reasons for Appealing
Reasons for Appealing
The commonest reasons for appeal of a VAT assessment that we see among our corporate clients are that HMRC has misunderstood the facts. Sometimes, our clients have identified technical or calculation errors in the assessment, or they believe that HMRC has misapplied industry-specific VAT rules. They may also have a difference of opinion with HMRC about interpretation of the legislation.
And of course, where the financial exposure is significant, we would always advise that a company seeks an expert review of their VAT assessment before accepting liability for any tax or penalties.
Challenging a VAT assessment can result in significant costs and disruption for a business.
The impact of the appeals process may be seen at all levels of the organisation. For example in:
- financial reporting
- cash flow
- investor confidence
- regulatory obligations
- board-level risk management
Some of our clients even have experience of HMRC withholding substantial rebates that are not concerned with the dispute.
Using an external VAT tribunal appeals service will provide certainty and streamline decision-making, as well as bolstering resource and giving access to specialist expertise and negotiating skills.
The Proactive Consultancy Group has technical expertise and extensive experience of dispute management. We can offer a consistent end-to-end service, taking our clients from investigation to tribunal.
Communicating Successfully With HMRC
Many of our VAT specialists have experience working for HMRC, which means they have the skills and knowledge to communicate and negotiate successfully.
VAT Appeal Deadline
There are strict deadlines for appealing a VAT penalty. Your penalty decision letter will offer you the opportunity to accept liability, have a statutory review, or to appeal to the tax tribunal. A review will take 45 days or more. It may result in the decision being upheld, varied or cancelled. You can appeal this decision if you disagree.
We can also give you advice to help with deciding whether it is reasonable to delay paying your tax bill while the appeal is ongoing. If you opt to delay payment and lose the appeal, you could be liable for interest. We can offer guidance that balances potential interest payments with cashflow and other impacts.
Expert Support Through VAT Appeals and Tribunal Proceedings
Get support with determining whether you can appeal HMRC’s VAT assessment to pursue a strong route to resolution.
The Proactive Consultancy Group combines technical VAT expertise with extensive experience of dispute management, helping businesses navigate every stage of the appeals process.
Accordion
The first step in our VAT appeals and tribunal service is a review of your case to better understand the commercial significance of the dispute and the grounds for challenge. In our review, our consultants will examine HMRC’s VAT assessment and its correspondence to get a full picture of the technical issues raised. We will also consider financial exposure, deadlines and your company’s appeal rights. At this stage, we can tell you whether your appeal is likely to be viable.
Next, we will validate your appeal case. As well as the technical position, we will consider the commercial realities that your business faces.
Our analysis of your appeal case will consider VAT legislation, as well as case law and existing decisions. We will also look at contracts and other supporting evidence, and we will examine industry-specific VAT treatment.
Once we have analysed your case, we can give you a clear recommendation on whether it is reasonable to proceed to tribunal or not.
Where there is a strong chance of success, we will proceed without charging an upfront fee – giving you access to VAT expertise with no financial risk. At this stage we agree scope of work, success criteria, reporting framework, stakeholder communications and fee arrangements. Transparency is one of our values, and it helps us to align with our clients for a successful outcome.
We have the expertise to lead the appeal from start to finish, working closely with your company’s financial and legal resources. Tasks our professional VAT tribunal specialists can take on include:
- prepare formal appeal submissions
- draft technical representations
- challenge HMRC’s technical arguments
- respond to HMRC’s correspondence
- quantify alternative positions
- support statutory review procedures
- negotiate settlements
- liaise with specialist counsel
- prepare tribunal documentation
- coordinate witness evidence
Our success-based fee is paid after the appeal or tribunal. A favourable tribunal outcome could see the penalties, tax and interest liability reduced, or the assessment withdrawn. This value will be delivered before any fees are payable.
The Proactive Consultancy Group offers a specialist dispute resolution service to businesses and organisations that are facing significant VAT exposures following an HMRC assessment.
The best time to call us in is as soon as you receive the VAT assessment. We can still help if you are closer to the review deadline, but we can get better outcomes if we work with your tax team from the beginning.
Our expert VAT advisers have experience working with:
[List of sectors block 43 words]
Using our services will minimise delays in the appeals process.
The Proactive Healthcare Group is ideally positioned to provide support in tribunals relating to the more complex aspects of VAT such as:
- VAT exemption
- partial exemption
- property-related VAT
- mixed supplies
- input tax recovery
- exempt supplies
- cross-border services