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Home Forums Patrick Cannon How do I respond to an SDLT discovery assessment? Reply To: How do I respond to an SDLT discovery assessment?

#632
David Hannah
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I can only echo what Patrick said. You do need to put in a notice of appeal and postponement for the tax before getting hold of an experienced accountant or solicitor to assist you in:

(a) assessing the position with regard to previous disclosure of the planning; and/or

(b) assembling the papers to support the original planning undertaken.

Once this has been done the accountant/solicitor should be able to advise you as to the probability of succeeding with a challenge given HMRC’s current attitudes and case law status etc. It has been my experience that very few SDLT schemes have been properly disclosed to HMRC at the time they were carried out i.e. with a disclosure letter or note attached to the return and this may well prejudice your position, but it is worth having a look.

Some accountants and solicitors will offer a fixed fee for an initial review and an outline of your options. It is also worthy of note that, in about 3-5% of all cases, the discovery assessments themselves have been issued incorrectly and are capable of being overturned on a technicality.