tax-advisory-risk-assessment

Risk Assessment — Tax Advisory

Identify, score and control the risks in work for individuals and businesses planning their tax affairs in an accountancy or advisory firm. The deliverable is a risk assessment with likelihood/impact scores, controls and owners. This skill is written for a tax adviser working with individuals and businesses planning their tax affairs in an accountancy or advisory firm.

When to use

• You are a tax adviser preparing, delivering or reviewing this part of your work in an accountancy or advisory firm.
• You need a defensible, repeatable approach that produces a risk assessment with likelihood/impact scores, controls and owners.
• A colleague, auditor or client asks how this was done and what evidence supports it.

Key Concepts

Term	Meaning
Tax relief	a legal reduction in tax payable
Enquiry	an investigation by the tax authority into a return
Residence	the country where a person is treated as living for tax

Workflow

1. Step 1 - Map the activity step by step and list what could go wrong at each stage for individuals and businesses planning their tax affairs and staff
2. Step 2 - Score each risk for likelihood and impact, giving special weight to missed filing deadlines
3. Step 3 - For every high risk, define a control that removes, reduces or contains it, using tax software where relevant
4. Step 4 - Record the assessment in tax computations, assign an owner to each control, and set a review date
5. Step 5 - Brief everyone involved before work starts; stop and reassess if conditions in an accountancy or advisory firm change

Profession-Specific Components

Component	Details for Tax Advisory
Core documentation	tax computations; advisory reports; filing records; enquiry correspondence
Core tools & equipment	tax software; research databases; modelling tools; client portals
People involved	individuals and businesses planning their tax affairs; the tax adviser; colleagues and other services in an accountancy or advisory firm
Primary record	tax computations — keep it current, dated and attributable

Output Format

Context: [Situation in an accountancy or advisory firm] | Objective: [What this must achieve] | Audience: [individuals and businesses planning their tax affairs and other stakeholders]

The finished output is a risk assessment with likelihood/impact scores, controls and owners, structured as:

1. Summary of position and evidence
2. Detail, following the workflow above
3. Decisions, actions, owners and dates
4. Review point and escalation route

Action Plan

1. Immediate: Confirm scope, consent and the evidence available in tax computations.
2. Short-term: Complete the workflow steps and record outcomes against filing deadline compliance.
3. Medium-term: Review results, close actions, and update local procedures in an accountancy or advisory firm.

Success Metrics

Metric	Target	Method
filing deadline compliance	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from tax computations and reviewed on a set cycle
enquiry outcomes	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from tax computations and reviewed on a set cycle
advisory uptake	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from tax computations and reviewed on a set cycle
penalty avoidance	Agree a local target and track the trend	Measured from tax computations and reviewed on a set cycle

Guardrails & Quality Checks

• Never let this happen: missed filing deadlines.
• Never let this happen: aggressive schemes challenged.
• Never let this happen: relief claims overlooked.
• Work only within the competence and authority of a tax adviser; escalate or refer anything beyond it.
• Record facts and observations, not speculation, and keep records confidential to an accountancy or advisory firm's rules.
• Verify names, dates, figures and measurements twice before anything is issued or signed off.
• Use only real, verified information from the case in hand — never invent results, credentials or evidence.

Example (illustrative)

A tax adviser in an accountancy or advisory firm applies this workflow for individuals and businesses planning their tax affairs: they open tax computations, work through the five steps using tax software, and close by recording the outcome against filing deadline compliance and agreeing the next review date. (Illustrative example only — replace with the real details of the case in hand.)