Well it’s official, you can’t rely on HMRC’s literature – which is what this employment tax expert has been saying for years, so watch out when it comes to employer compliance reviews, tax investigations etc

The problem you have is that the general public quite rightly would expect that any guidance provided by the Inland Revenue is correct – whoops, time for a harsh reality check, HMRC guidance is their INTERPRETATION of the law and that’s as far as it goes, a fact that Parnalls solicitors fell foul of when they relied on this guidance in a recent Tribunal case:

In a concluding statement the Tribunal judge, Roger Berner stated:

“Mr Harvey referred us to a number of extracts from HMRC publications and other materials in support of an argument that HMRC were guilty of inconsistency in arguing the case against the Appellant. We do not consider that these were material to our decision, which depends on the law as we have found it and not on any interpretation which might be attributed to HMRC. We do not therefore refer to such materials in our decision, and we make no comment on their validity or otherwise.”