Lack of safeguards in debt legislation is a concern, says ACCA

The publication of the primary legislation needed to bring in to law the direct recovery of debts omits the safeguards that would dictate under which circumstances these new powers may be used. The omission is of concern to ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).

Chas Roy-Chowdhury, ACCA head of taxation, said: “We have seen HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) make some concessions following ACCA’s and other responses to their consultation over the proposals but we are concerned that there no detail yet on the safeguards and detail of precisely how this new, wide ranging power, will be used.

“HMRC have been clear that they only want the power to use against those that can pay but have refused to do. But there is nothing in the primary legislation as it currently stands to restrict them to these instances.

"We understand that the use of the power is to be set out in secondary legislation. ACCA’s concern is that secondary legislation is a lot easier to amend and while we have no reason to think that the current management at HMRC will deviate from how they propose to use the powers, future administrations may not feel so constrained.”

The direct recovery of debts was first proposed by the Chancellor during his 2014 budget and was included in the draft finance bill clauses clauses following the 2014 autumn statement.