Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014 section 138

Protection for privileged communications between legal advisers and clients

Section 138 protects legally privileged communications between clients and their professional legal advisers from being disclosed under an information notice issued by Revenue Scotland.

• An information notice cannot compel anyone to hand over information or documents that are covered by legal professional privilege.
• Information or a document is considered privileged if it would be protected as a confidential communication between a client and their professional legal adviser in court proceedings.
• Scottish Ministers have the power to make regulations setting out how disputes over whether information or a document qualifies as privileged should be resolved by the tax tribunal.
• Such regulations may include rules about who holds custody of a disputed document while the tribunal decides whether it is privileged.

---