Tax Enquiry (investigation?)

paulypost

I am currently 'under enquiry' in respect of quite a large refund that is due on VCT and EIS investments made in 22-23 and I have provided the evidence required in the form of Tax Certificates issued by the investment providers, which they have confirmed are acceptable. However, I'm also being asked to send copy bank statements hi-liting the individual transactions. As I have been 'paperless' for many years, I have copy/pasted these into a word doc & sent a jpg of it to the investigation tax officer. If I am told that this is not sufficient proof and have to print the bank statement pages, should I redact (black felt pen?) all the other entries on each page? Or will this simply make them think that I have something to hide? All advice welcome.

Jeremy535897

They can ask to see your bank statements as part of the enquiry. What information on the relevant bank statements is so sensitive that you need to redact it?

Skwizz

Not an expert in dealing with HMRC.
But, when I do, they are aware that I provide them with full visibility and am happy to do so.
They bug me very little and have even made some rather helpful suggestions because I've made their lives easier.
I would consider how you would feel, in a tax inspector's shoes, if you felt someone might be trying to keep/hide something from you.

purdyoaten2

paulypost said:

I am currently 'under enquiry' in respect of quite a large refund that is due on VCT and EIS investments made in 22-23 and I have provided the evidence required in the form of Tax Certificates issued by the investment providers, which they have confirmed are acceptable. However, I'm also being asked to send copy bank statements hi-liting the individual transactions. As I have been 'paperless' for many years, I have copy/pasted these into a word doc & sent a jpg of it to the investigation tax officer. If I am told that this is not sufficient proof and have to print the bank statement pages, should I redact (black felt pen?) all the other entries on each page? Or will this simply make them think that I have something to hide? All advice welcome.

Having had reasonable experience of this one would imagine that the inspector would immediately be at least curious as to what was under those black lines and why it was so important to hide that information.

paulypost

Many thanks for the input & I can feed back that this morning I have been asked for 'the full statement showing the transactions and bank details. So I'm about to send the statement pages containing the relevant transactions with no redaction.