Check Challenge Appeal (CCA), the online sequential bureaucratic process for contesting rateable values, was instigated due to VOA concerns that access to the previous appeal system was too easy. The agency claims this led to it being overwhelmed with thousands of superfluous appeals, many of which are still awaiting a resolution. However, the committee rebuked the VOA saying the delays “bring its work into disrepute”.
Despite business stakeholders not supporting CCA, parliament changed the law by negative resolution, meaning that the process (notably the 12 and 18 month timescales for Checks and Challenges) was not debated fully.
The online system starts at the Government Gateway - the central hub for interacting with government agencies online - where Checks and Challenges are administered on the VOA portal. The committee noted that in extreme cases a business could potentially wait 950 days before reaching the appeal stage; a timeframe that it said is “too generous” in the VOA’s favour. It has therefore recommended that the 12 and 18 month timescales both be reduced to 6 months.
Another major frustration of CCA is the cumbersome registration process, especially for corporations with multiple properties, although the Trusted Helper scheme – where an agent registers to deal with client registration – can transfer the burden of this from the business to their agent but will result in a cost to one or the other.
A government pledge from the Conservative’s 2017 election manifesto is to put all business taxes onto one platform by 2024. We are pleased that the committee has told HM Treasury, HMRC and the VOA that they must learn from the implementation of CCA that has “eroded public confidence”.
A fundamental aspect of the CCA legislation is that the VOA was brought into line with HMRC thereby limiting the release of data, including rental evidence. The VOA may reveal a ‘proportionate’ amount of evidence towards the end of the Challenge and Appeal stages, whereas it would be more useful to receive this information upfront. Contributors to the inquiry suggested ratepayers could be granted access to evidence, but the committee’s lame recommendation is merely for the VOA to make sure that a business understands why rental information is withheld. This approach is neither efficient nor effective unless the desired outcome is to frustrate the process.