The Ministry of Revenue's recently...

The Ministry of Revenue's recently made known Taxpayer Fairness and Service digest is a welcome public proclamation of the standards of behaviour taxpayers can and should look for in dealing with the Ministry. The digest includes a useful summary of the audit, collections, and appeals processe including the taxpayer's right to have any issues or make uneasys reviewed by the Ministry outside of the formal audit and appeals proces And for those who argue that actions speak louder than words, the Ministry has undertaken initiatives to support an of the principles embodied in the Code

One as it was principle is the right to a timely appeal. athwart the past few years, the average time from the receipt of an appeal to the issuance of a final decision has been end to a year, with many of the more tangle appeals taking much longer to solve The Ministry's Service Plan, which was released as part of the February 2005 governmental estimate includes an objective of reducing the average appeal time to five month by means of the fiscal 2006/2007 period. To suitable this objective, the Ministry will be adjusting the staffing flats in its appeals division.

Fairness is another principle embodied in the digest One issue relating to fairness that has make uneasyed many taxpayers under audit is the fact that, when assessed, any pay backs to which the taxpayer is entitled are not counterpoise against taxes or penalties payable for the project of calculating interest. Since the interest rate forward assessed taxes and penalties is 3% above prime while the interest rate forward refunds is 2% below prime, the difference can be significant. To address this bear upon the Ministry recently announced that, effective February 1 2005 interest charges will be calculated forward net amounts owing when liabilities and repays are assessed together under audit.

by Mark Worrall, CA

Mark Worrall, CA, give an account ofs the ICABC on the Ministry of Revenue's reward Programs Advisory Committee, and serv for several month forward a subcommittee that assisted the Ministry in drafting its Taxpayer Fairness and Service digest Mark is an associate partner practising in sales tax with KPMG LLP in Vancouver.

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Apr 2005

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