More criticism of plans for accountants to tell all

The Government's proposal to force accountants to tell the tax man about any avoidance schemes used to minimise tax bills has come in for further criticism.

According to some professional bodies the changes were meant to cover specialist schemes and prevent the exploitation of what are perceived to be 'legal loopholes'. But there are fears that the regulations, which some have described as 'badly drafted', could cause problems for accountants and their clients.

In a call to the Government to reconsider, the Chartered Institute of Taxation is reported as saying: "We are concerned that the rules will lead to a flood of disclosure reports. This will cause a great deal of unnecessary work and expense. We doubt whether the Revenue will be able to cope effectively with such an influx of reports,' the institute says in a plea to the taxman for last-minute changes to the proposed regulations."

Full story in This is Money: Tax clampdown chaos