CH182180 - Dishonest tax agents: conduct notice: offence of concealment in connection with a conduct notice
A person commits an offence when they conceal, destroy or otherwise dispose of a ‘material documentâ€� after we issue a conduct notice, or after we advise that we are likely to issue a conduct notice. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp offence includes arranging for a material document to be concealed, destroyed or disposed.
‘Material documents� are any documents that we can seek under a file access notice, see CH182200, and are the tax agent’s working papers and other documents used in assisting clients with their tax affairs.
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp offence can apply to both the tax agent and any other person who can reasonably be expected to know of the notice.
Where we have issued a conduct notice, no offence is committed where
- the determination used to issue the conduct notice is set aside, see CH182160,
- more than four years have passed since the conduct notice was given, or
- the third party who destroys the documents was not aware of us issuing a conduct notice, or could not be reasonably be expected to know that we had issued a conduct notice.
Where we have not issued the conduct notice, but after we have advised that we are likely to issue a conduct notice, no offence is committed where
- more than two years have lapsed since the individual was informed, or last informed, of our intention to issue a conduct notice, or
- the person was not aware that we had advised that it was likely that a conduct notice would be issued.
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp standard of proof for this offence is to the criminal standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubtâ€� and the burden of proof is on HMRC.
A person guilty of an offence is liable
- on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, and
- on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or both.