Tribunal Fees to be introduced despite opposition

The government is to proceed with the introduction of fees in the Tax Chamber of the Tribunal Service despite the strong opposition to the proposals.

Charges are to be introduced which are broadly in line with those set out in September's consultation, with one change: the fee for appealing a fixed penalty of £100 or less, will now be set at £20 as opposed £50.

A summary of the proposed fees is below:

The Government will bring forward the necessary statutory instruments as soon as possible.

The standard HMCTS fee remission scheme will apply in these jurisdictions, and the Government have previously indicated that the Tribunal should have the power to order that fees should be reimbursed, which is consistent with the approach in those Chambers where fees are already charged.

Rationale for reform

• The operation of the Tax Chamber (First & Upper Tier) currently costs HMCTS an estimated £8.7m per annum none of which is currently recovered.
• The General Regulatory Chamber costs an estimated £1.6m per year to operate again, none of this is currently recovered.

The Government believes that is not fair to expect these costs to be borne entirely by the taxpayer and that it is reasonable that those who use the service and can afford to make a contribution to the cost of the service should do so. Its intention is to seek to recover around 25% of the cost across these three jurisdictions.

One aim of the Government in introducing and revising fee structures in these tribunals is to keep the fee charging structures as simple as possible to assist both tribunal users and HMCTS staff in understanding the new fees.

Another key aim of these proposals is to ensure that fees are not a barrier to justice.

Links

The Consultation on further fees proposals closed on 15 September 2015.

For the full response see The Government response to consultation on further fees proposals.