A debate about how and when taxpayers should get redress from public sector bodies that act wrongfully could end with proposals for a duty of care on the taxman.
In their consultation, the Law Commission says it is considering whether today’s system for redress against public sector outfits, like HMRC, should be updated.
The commission’s main goal is to strike the right balance between “fairness to aggrieved citizens” and appropriate safeguards to public bodies and their funding.
Its proposals include making compensation more available under judicial review; and reform to the tort of negligence - the area of the law that governs the concept of a duty of care.
These core recommendations make the PCG, the freelance trade group, optimistic that their wish that a duty of care be placed on Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs will be granted.
“For too long HMRC has been free to trample all over the businesses of innocent and law-abiding taxpayers,” said John Brazier, the group’s managing director
“We are hopeful that this exercise will finally allow them to obtain proper redress for the harm HMRC inflicts.”
The commission’s paper, which asks - “what mechanisms should be available for citizens to receive redress against public sector bodies?” - is open to the public until November.
It argues that the duty of care between individuals and public bodies has developed, in “a haphazard and complicated fashion” and that “the current system is plainly unsatisfactory”.
“[In] certain situations individuals are unable to retain redress where they have been subject to administrative behaviour that falls far below that expected of a public body,” the paper states.
However, Kenneth Parker QC, who is heading the debate, said that the legal rules on liability should not “impede the activities of public bodies or impose
unacceptable burdens on public funds.”
The commission is also considering, and inviting responses to, every aspect of the law in this area, including complaints procedures, inquiries, tribunals, ombudsmen and the courts.
The PCG said it will be “pushing hard” to ensure an effective mechanism emerges for holding HMRC to account, so all taxpayers can be “properly compensated for any harm that is done to them by incompetent or aggressive action.”
In October last year, Neil Martin, a self-employed builder, won compensation from HMRC after he sued the tax authority for negligence, in a case that showed public bodies could be liable but only in a narrow set of circumstances.
The PCG has invited its members to help form the group’s response to HMRC on three consultations; submitting returns on time, interest owed on payments and a new taxpayer charter.
Jul 22, 2008
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