My new book on Tax Authority Advice is now out!

My monograph, Tax Authority Advice and the Public, published by Hart Publishing is now out! It is available in hardback and ebook here (where you can also find a sample chapter on remedies against HMRC). It is 264 pages long and contains a foreword from Nina Olson, Executive Director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights and former National Taxpayer Advocate of the US Internal Revenue Service.

The book builds on my doctoral work and is the culmination of six years work. At its heart, it puts forward a simple proposition: that tax authorities should assist taxpayers through the provision of advice. That proposition finds support in the rule of law, in that people ought to be aware of the legal consequences of their actions. More fundamentally it revolves around respect for human dignity – as people ought to be able to plan their lives, with the legal consequences being just one factor which they should be able to consider in the decision-making process. It follows that tax authority advice should be correct, clear, accessible and reliable. A system for advice should also provide a mechanism or mechanisms to ensure that the advice meets these criteria.

Against this background, the book investigates HMRC advice, highlights the pitfalls for taxpayers and practitioners as well as the potential remedies. Finally, the book assesses potential reforms which could be adopted in order to alleviate existing problems.

The book will be of interest to practitioners and academics interested in the interaction between tax administration and public law.

Tax Authority Advice and the PubliceApr 2020   |   9781509930531   |   264pp   |   Hbk   |    RSP: £80

Discount Price: £64

Order online at www.hartpublishing.co.uk – use the code HE6 at the checkout to get 20% off your order!

★★★★★

Response

  1. […] It is unsurprising accordingly that governments have had to “supplement” legal provisions with forms of soft law, such as guidance. There is nothing novel about this use of guidance. It is not “discretionary” other than in the sense that public authorities have discretion about whether or not to issue guidance and what form it should take and so on. Public authorities do not get to dictate the legal consequences that follow from the rules (though undoubtedly vague laws do give them practical power). To be vested with legal discretion is to be entitled to determine the legal consequences – and so a legal rule itself only contains discretion for instance if it prescribes that “an official is entitled to determine what is reasonable in the circumstances”. And indeed, it is desirable that guidance should be used in such a fashion – to complement but not displace law – as it acts as a guide for individuals in order so that they can understand the legal consequences of their actions. Understood in this way, guidance and other forms of advice provided by public authorities are not a threat to the rule of law, but rather positively advance it as I argue in Tax Authority Advice and the Public. […]

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