Section 232 | Suspension of registration

(1)An authorised officer of Revenue and Customs may, by notice, suspend the registration of a registered tax adviser if the officer is not satisfied that the adviser meets the registration conditions.

(2)An authorised officer of Revenue and Customs may, by notice, suspend the registration of a registered tax adviser for a period of up to 12 months if the officer considers that the adviser has, in the course of interacting with HMRC, behaved in a manner which falls below the standards that might reasonably be expected of a tax adviser in their interactions with HMRC.

(3)In considering whether a tax adviser has behaved as described in subsection (2), the officer may in particular have regard to any provisions of a relevant HMRC standard that relate to interactions between tax advisers and HMRC.In this subsection “relevant HMRC standard” means a standard published by HMRC that is specified for the purposes of this section in a notice published by HMRC.

(4)Before suspending the registration of a registered tax adviser under this section, the officer must—

(a)notify the adviser of the fact that the officer considers subsection (1) or (2) to apply, and

(b)allow the adviser a period of—

(i)30 days, or

(ii)if subsection (5) applies, 60 days,

beginning with the date of the notification, to take action to meet the conditions or to make representations to HMRC.

(5)This subsection applies where—

(a)the tax adviser is an individual and the officer considers subsection (1) to apply solely by virtue of the adviser not meeting the condition in section 227(2)(a) (amount of tax etc overdue), or

(b)the tax adviser is an organisation and the officer considers subsection (1) to apply solely by virtue of a relevant individual of the adviser not meeting the condition in section 227(2)(a) (amount of tax etc overdue).

(6)A notice suspending the registration of a registered tax adviser under this section must state the following—

(a)the date on which it is issued;

(b)the date on which the suspension has effect, which must not be before the end of the period of 30 days beginning with the date mentioned in paragraph (a);

(c)in a case within subsection (2), the period of the suspension;

(d)details of—

(i)in a case within subsection (1), which of the registration conditions the officer is not satisfied that the adviser meets;

(ii)in a case within subsection (2), the behaviour mentioned in that subsection;

(e)the period within which an appeal against the decision to suspend the registration of the adviser may be made.

(7)An authorised officer of Revenue and Customs must, by notice, lift a suspension imposed under subsection (1) if satisfied that the adviser meets the registration conditions.