Category: Tax investigations and HMRC powers · Reviewed by the Apex broking team · Last reviewed 2026-08-20
Category: Tax investigations and HMRC powers Also known as: information notice, Sch 36 notice, taxpayer notice, third-party notice Related concepts: aspect enquiry, HMRC enquiry window
Schedule 36 Finance Act 2008 contains HMRC’s principal civil information and inspection powers. It allows an officer to require, by written notice, information or documents that are reasonably required for the purpose of checking a taxpayer’s tax position. The schedule applies across the main taxes, so the same powers are used in income tax and corporation tax enquiries, VAT compliance checks and employer compliance work.
A taxpayer notice requires the taxpayer to provide information or produce documents about their own tax position. Requests are often made informally first; a formal notice puts the request on a statutory footing.
A third-party notice requires someone else — a bank, an accountant, a counterparty — to provide information about a named taxpayer’s position. In general such a notice needs either the taxpayer’s agreement or the approval of the tribunal, and the schedule sets out further variants, including notices relating to persons whose identity is not known.
Separately from notices, Schedule 36 gives officers power to enter business premises and inspect the premises, business assets and business documents where the inspection is reasonably required for checking the tax position. It does not authorise entry to parts of premises used solely as a dwelling.
The schedule distinguishes statutory records — the records a person is required by tax legislation to keep, such as the business records underlying returns — from other material. In outline: a taxpayer can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal against a requirement in a taxpayer notice, except a requirement to produce statutory records, against which there is no appeal. Where a notice has been approved by the tribunal in advance, appeal rights are also excluded. Penalties can be charged for failure to comply, starting with a fixed penalty and continuing with daily penalties while the failure goes on.
Schedule 36 is the machinery behind most HMRC requests for records: an informal request declined can usually become a formal notice with penalty consequences. Responding well means checking that a notice is validly addressed and within the “reasonably required” standard, distinguishing statutory records from material that can be challenged, and keeping the response proportionate. That work is normally done by the taxpayer’s accountant or adviser, and the fees it generates are the risk addressed by tax fee protection insurance.
This entry is part of the Apex Insurance Wiki. Last reviewed 2026-08-20. Next review: 2027-02-20.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 724952. Registered in England and Wales, Companies House 07014570. This entry provides general information about UK insurance concepts and is not regulated advice. Consult your insurance broker on your specific position.
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