Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 289C

Revocation of approvals

Section 289C deals with the power of HMRC to revoke a flat-rate expense approval previously granted under section 289B, and the tax and reporting consequences that follow.

• An HMRC officer may revoke a flat-rate expense approval by issuing a revocation notice to the original applicant and/or the person paying or reimbursing the expenses.
• The revocation can take effect from the original date of the approval or from a later date specified in the notice, and may apply to all expenses or only to specified categories of expense.
• If the approval is revoked back to its original start date, the position is treated as though the approval had never been given — any tax that would otherwise have been due is reinstated, and all affected parties must file the returns they would have been required to make without the approval.
• If the approval is revoked from a later date, tax liabilities and reporting obligations are reinstated from that date onwards, as though the approval had ceased to have effect on that day.