ATT responses to government consultation on Introducing a criminal offence for making reckless untrue statements or declarations in direct tax

The ATT has responded to the government consultation on introducing a criminal offence for making reckless untrue statements or declarations in direct tax (‘the Consultation’) which was issued on 23 June 2026. 

The Consultation seeks views on proposals to introduce a criminal offence for making reckless untrue statements or declarations in relation to direct tax matters, thus aligning the legal framework with existing offences in indirect tax.

In the ATT's response, we made it clear that we support legislative alignment between direct and indirect taxes where there is a demonstrable benefit to taxpayers, advisers and HMRC.

However, we do not support the introduction of a new criminal offence for making reckless untrue statements or declarations in relation to direct taxes.

In our view, the Consultation has not established that the existing framework of civil penalties and criminal offences is insufficient to address the concerned behaviours. Rather than filling a genuine gap in HMRC's enforcement powers, the proposal risks creating unnecessary overlap with the existing civil penalties regime and lowering the threshold for criminal liability by introducing criminal sanctions in circumstances where dishonesty is neither alleged nor capable of being established.

The ATT’s full response can be read here.