While we wait, HM Revenue and Customs have found the time to publish three consultative documents concerning proposed changes to HMRC powers and have indicated the intention to draw up a Taxpayers' Charter.

The three documents run to over 150 pages and can be found on the Revenue website. The three documents are:

• "Modernising Powers, Deterrents and Safeguards: Payments, Repayments and Debt: Responses to Consultation and Proposals.”
• "Modernising Powers, Deterrents and Safeguards: A New Approach to Compliance Checks: Responses to Consultation and Proposals.”
• "Modernising Powers, Deterrents and Safeguards: Penalties Reform: The Next Phase."
  
  

The first document on payment, repayment and debt proposes changes to the statutory framework that allows HMRC to collect tax debts and ensure that taxpayers pay what they owe; the second document contains proposals on compliance checks and puts forward proposals for a new framework for HMRC to check that taxpayers are paying the right amount of tax and claiming the right amount of repayments; and finally, the civil penalties document puts forward proposals for extending the new statutory framework in Finance Act 2007 for charging civil penalties to all other taxes, levies and duties that HMRC is responsible for, except for Tax Credits.

There is no mention in the documents of the Taxpayers Charter but the accompanying Press Release quotes Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Jane Kennedy, as saying:

"The Government is committed to ensuring that the tax system is useable and accessible and a Taxpayers' Charter will provide a good reference point for taxpayers.”

Those with long memories will remember that both the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise introduced Taxpayers Charters in the 1990s but these disappeared after a few years when it became apparent that neither organisation could keep to them!

Watch this space for the more pressing details on Residence, Domicile and Capital gains.