Responding to the consultation on raising standards in the tax advice market, which closes on Wednesday 29 May 2024, ICAEW said that the chosen approach must raise technical and ethical standards among tax practitioners and protect consumers from incompetent or unscrupulous practitioners, without increasing costs to the extent that taxpayers cannot afford professional advice.
In its response, the Institute said that while there were issues with all of the approaches suggested, its preference would be for mandatory membership of a professional body but only if such an approach was appropriately designed and scoped.
However, ICAEW emphasised that its current entry requirements would not change, so in practice, it would be unlikely that many of the current unaffiliated tax practitioners would seek to join the Institute.
It said that for a regulatory regime to be effective, there should be a level playing field for all people and firms providing tax advice and services, which includes those already subject to statutory regulation, such as solicitors.
Additionally, changes to the regulatory framework should extend to all tax practitioners and not just to agents who interact with HMRC systems.
An increase in monitoring requirements, or the creation of new oversight bodies, could risk significant costs being pushed down to taxpayers. Tax advice and services could then become unaffordable for the majority of taxpayers.
Alan Vallance, ICAEW Chief Executive, said:
“It is paramount that any change made to the regulation of people and firms in the tax advice market must be made in the public interest.
“The chosen approach must raise technical and ethical standards among tax practitioners and protect consumers from incompetent or unscrupulous practitioners, without increasing costs to put professional advice out of the reach of taxpayers.
“While we think there are issues with all of the proposed options, if HMRC does decide to introduce tax regulation, our preference is for mandatory membership of a professional body but only if the model is appropriately designed and scoped. If not, there is a risk that costs could be pushed down to consumers, making tax advice and services unaffordable and therefore undermining the objective of regulation.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
CONTACT: ICAEW media office stephen.froome@icaew.com or 07970 402 073