These Regulations, made by the Commissioners for His Majesty's Revenue and Customs under the Finance Act 2026, specify the precise procedural requirements that a lawyer must satisfy when submitting a declaration to HMRC. This declaration confirms that legally privileged communications would substantiate representations made by the lawyer objecting to HMRC publishing information about a tax avoidance scheme involving the lawyer or their client, ensuring such declarations meet specific formatting, content, and timing criteria to remain valid.
Arguments For
Establishing clear procedural safeguards ensures that lawyers can assert their clients' rights regarding legally privileged communications when responding to potential public disclosure of tax avoidance scheme details by HMRC.
The detailed requirements for declarations (including names, regulatory bodies, and the basis of privilege reliance) provide HMRC with necessary verification criteria, maintaining the integrity and certainty of the information required for appeals processes.
Setting a strict timing requirement (declaration provided no later than the representations) ensures that procedural challenges based on legal privilege are raised concurrently with the substantive challenge against publication, streamlining the decision-making process.
Arguments Against
The mandatory disclosure of detailed information about the lawyers involved, their regulatory bodies, and the specific facts underpinning the privilege claim could be seen as an undue administrative burden on legal professionals and their clients.
Requiring a lawyer to specify whether privilege alone or privilege combined with other information suffices to prove their representations might place them in a difficult position regarding the scope and sensitivity of the privileged material they are trying to protect.
While intended to protect communication, the mere requirement to create a formal declaration about legally privileged material might inadvertently narrow the application of legal professional privilege in disclosure disputes by codifying specific exceptions.
STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS
2026 No. 570
TAXES
The Publication of Information About Tax Avoidance Schemes (Legally Privileged Communications Declarations) Regulations 2026
This text identifies the legal instrument as a Statutory Instrument from 2026, numbered 570, covering the domain of Taxes, and names it as the Regulations concerning declarations about legally privileged communications when publishing information on tax avoidance schemes.
Made - - - -
1st June 2026
Laid before the House of
Commons - - - -
2nd June 2026
Coming into force - -
23rd June 2026
These timelines specify when the Regulations were officially enacted.
They were made on 1st June 2026, presented to the House of Commons on 2nd June 2026, and became legally effective on 23rd June 2026.
The Commissioners for His Majesty's Revenue and Customs make these Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 209(8) of the Finance Act 2026( 1 ).
The Commissioners of HMRC created these Regulations by using the specific legal authority granted to them under section 209(8) of the Finance Act 2026.
Citation and commencement
- These Regulations may be cited as the Publication of Information About Tax Avoidance Schemes (Legally Privileged Communications Declarations) Regulations 2026 and come into force on 23rd June 2026.
This section provides the official short title for the legislative text and confirms that the effective date for these rules is 23rd June 2026.
Requirements of a valid declaration in relation to privileged material
- -(1) A declaration made under section 209 of the Finance Act 2026 must-
- (a) contain the name, home address and practising address of each of the following-
- (i) the lawyer who intends to make the representations,
- (ii) the lawyer making the declaration, if different, and
- (iii) each lawyer whose privileged communications would otherwise be relied upon to establish that the representations to which the declaration relates are true,
This segment outlines the essential initial requirements for a valid declaration made under section 209 of the Finance Act 2026 concerning privileged material.
The declaration must include the name, home address, and professional practicing address for three distinct roles: the lawyer planning to submit the objection, the lawyer actually submitting the declaration (if different), and any other lawyer whose privileged communications are being cited as proof.
- (b) contain, in relation to each lawyer named in the declaration-
- (i) the name of each body that regulates the professional conduct of that lawyer, and
- (ii) where the body issues an identifying number to those it regulates, that number,
For every lawyer identified in the declaration, the submission must specify the name of every professional body that governs their conduct.
Furthermore, it must include that lawyer's regulatory identifying number, provided their regulating body issues such numbers.
- (c) identify the arrangements to which the representations relate,
- (d) identify each fact, stated in the representations, to which the declaration relates,
The declaration must explicitly identify the specific tax avoidance arrangements being discussed in the representations.
It also needs to pinpoint the exact facts, as stated within those representations, which the declaration is intended to support through reference to privileged communication.
- (e) state whether the declaration is made on the basis that-
- (i) the content of the privileged communications, alone, is sufficient on the balance of probabilities to demonstrate that the representations are true, or
- (ii) the content of the privileged communications is, with other information, sufficient to demonstrate on the balance of probabilities that the representations are true,
The lawyer must clearly state the basis upon which they are asserting the truth of their representations.
This assertion must rely either solely on the privileged communications or on a combination of the privileged communications alongside other, non-privileged supporting information.
- (f) identify, where sub-paragraph (e)(ii) applies, the other information that is relied upon to demonstrate that the representations are true,
If the declaration relies on privileged communications combined with other information (as per sub-paragraph (e)(ii)), the submission must specify exactly what that supplementary, non-privileged information is.
- (g) confirm that the contents of the declaration are true to the best of the knowledge and belief of the lawyer making the declaration, and
- (h) be signed and dated by the lawyer making the declaration.
The lawyer submitting the declaration must formally confirm that all contents within it are accurate to the level of their knowledge and belief.
The declaration must be formally concluded with the lawyer’s signature and the date of signing.
(2) In paragraph (1)(c), 'arrangements' has the meaning given by section 212(5) of the Finance Act 2026.
This clarifies that the term 'arrangements' used in the context of identifying the subject matter of the representations refers back to the precise definition provided in section 212(5) of the Finance Act 2026.
- A declaration made under section 209 of the Finance Act 2026 must be provided to HMRC no later than the representations to which it relates.
A declaration asserting legal privilege must be submitted to HMRC at the same time as, or earlier than, the main representations it is supporting; it cannot be submitted later than the objection itself.
1st June 2026
Penny Ciniewicz Carol Bristow Two of the Commissioners of His Majesty's Revenue and Customs
This section records the date the instrument was signed and identifies the two Commissioners of HMRC, Penny Ciniewicz and Carol Bristow, who executed the Regulations.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations set out the requirements that a declaration made under section 209 of the Finance Act 2026 must meet.
Section 316C of the Finance Act 2004 (c. 12), paragraph 36 of Schedule 17 to the Finance (No. 2) Act 2017 (c. 32) and section 86 of the Finance Act 2022 (c. 3) allow HMRC to publish information about tax avoidance schemes, including the identity of a person. Where HMRC proposes to publish such information, the person concerned may make representations to the effect that the information should not be published. If that person is a lawyer, legal professional privilege (or, in Scotland, confidentiality of communications) may prevent disclosure of supporting communications. Section 209(2) of the Finance Act 2026 allows a lawyer to make a declaration confirming that privileged communications would substantiate the representations, without breaching privilege.
A Tax Information and Impact note covering this instrument was published on 26 November 2025 alongside the Autumn Budget 2025 and is available on the GOV.UK website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-promoters-of-marketedtax-avoidance/closing-in-on-promoters-of-marketed-tax-avoidance-schemes. It remains an accurate summary of the impacts that apply to this instrument.
The Explanatory Note clarifies that the Regulations detail the necessary conditions for declarations made under section 209 of the Finance Act 2026.
Existing legislation permits HMRC to disclose details about tax avoidance schemes, allowing affected parties to object via representations.
If the objector is a lawyer, legal professional privilege might usually block supporting evidence; however, section 209(2) of the Finance Act 2026 permits a specific declaration to substantiate representations without breaking privilege.
The note also references a relevant Tax Information and Impact Note published earlier regarding the broader policy context.
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