The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has instructed all solicitors to comply with the Code of Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation jointly published by the accounting and tax bodies in March 2017.
Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT) sets out:
- The fundamental principles of behaviour that members are expected to follow.
- How these may apply to the day to day work of a tax adviser, as well as some more speciality situations
The legal profession did not participate in these discussions, and were to create their own guidance for solicitors and barristers.
The SRA has warned that solicitors who promote or assist “aggressive tax avoidance” may be disciplined for misconduct, or even prosecuted, saying that the PCRT rules “reflect our own principles, particularly that solicitors must be honest and act with integrity and uphold the rule of law”.
Comment
The agreement to common standards levels a competitive distortion between the legal and accounting professions in relation to tax advice. One major difference between the professions is legal professional privilege which means that legal professionals are not required to disclose communications between legal adviser and client, without the client's permission.
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Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation
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