Overview of RSTPA Guidance on General Meanings and Definitions

Revenue Scotland investigatory powers: key legal meanings

This guidance page is mainly an overview of important definitions used in Revenue Scotland’s information and inspection powers under the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act. It does not set out detailed rules itself, but points to other guidance on terms such as “tax position”, “statutory records”, “produce documents” and “business premises”, which can affect the scope of compliance checks and LBTT enquiries.

• The page is a signpost to definitions used across Revenue Scotland’s investigatory powers, rather than a statement of tax charges, reliefs or detailed procedural rules.
• Key terms include “tax position”, “statutory records”, “provide information”, “produce documents”, “enter”, “inspect”, “premises”, “business premises”, “carrying on a business”, “business assets” and “business documents”.
• These expressions may have specific legal meanings, so it is unsafe to rely only on their everyday meaning when dealing with information notices, inspections or compliance checks.
• In practice, disputes often turn on scope, such as whether material must be provided, whether premises count as business premises, or whether records are statutory records.
• For LBTT matters, the right approach is to identify the exact power being used, match it to the relevant defined term, and then check the detailed guidance and the legislation itself.
• Guidance explains Revenue Scotland’s view, but the legislation remains the starting point, especially where facts are unclear or property has mixed personal and business use.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

Revenue Scotland investigatory guidance: general meanings used in information and inspection powers

This page explains what the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act guidance section on “general meanings” is doing. It is not setting out one tax charge or relief. Instead, it gathers together key definitions used across Revenue Scotland’s investigatory powers. These definitions matter because they affect what Revenue Scotland can ask for, what a taxpayer may need to provide, and how powers such as inspection and document production work in practice.

What this rule is about

The source material is an overview page for a group of guidance pages under the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act. The function of the page is mainly navigational. It points readers to separate pages explaining the meaning of important terms used in the investigatory regime.

Those terms include:

• tax position
• statutory records
• provide information
• produce documents
• enter
• inspect
• premises and business premises
• carrying on a business
• business assets
• business documents

In a property tax context, these meanings can become relevant in enquiries, information notices, inspections, and compliance checks relating to devolved Scottish taxes such as LBTT. The importance of the page is therefore not in any detailed rule stated on the page itself, but in signalling that these words have defined meanings within the statutory powers framework.

What the official source says

The official source describes the section as an “Overview of RSTPA guidance on general meanings” and lists the individual guidance pages in that section. Each linked page deals with the meaning of a specific term used in the legislation governing Revenue Scotland’s investigatory powers.

The page itself does not explain the detailed content of those definitions. It simply identifies the topics covered. So the key point from the source is that these expressions are treated as important legal terms within the Act and are explained elsewhere in the guidance.

What this means in practice

If you are dealing with Revenue Scotland compliance activity, it is risky to rely on everyday meanings of words such as “information”, “documents”, “inspect”, or “business premises”. In this area, those terms may carry a statutory meaning or a meaning shaped by the structure of the investigatory powers.

That matters because disputes often arise not over broad tax liability, but over scope. For example:

• What exactly counts as a person’s “tax position”?
• Which records are “statutory records” that must be kept or produced?
• Does a request require information, documents, or both?
• Can Revenue Scotland enter particular premises?
• Are the premises genuinely “business premises”?
• Is the person actually carrying on a business for these purposes?

In LBTT matters, this can affect how far an enquiry goes, what evidence may be requested, and whether a taxpayer or adviser can reasonably challenge the scope of a notice or inspection.

How to analyse it

When this guidance section becomes relevant, a sensible approach is to work through the following questions.

• Identify the power being used. Is Revenue Scotland seeking information, documents, access to premises, or inspection of assets or records?
• Match the power to the defined term. The legal meaning may differ depending on whether the issue is “providing information”, “producing documents”, or allowing entry or inspection.
• Check whether the matter concerns a personal tax position, a business activity, or business records. The distinction may affect the extent of the power.
• Consider the status of the premises. A home, office, storage site, and mixed-use property may not all be treated in the same way.
• Look at whether the material requested is part of statutory records or only broader background material.
• Read the specific guidance page and, where necessary, the underlying legislation rather than relying on the overview page alone.

The main practical lesson from the source is that these terms are building blocks. Before deciding what Revenue Scotland can require, you need to know which defined concept is in play.

Example

Illustration: a buyer submits an LBTT return for a land transaction. Revenue Scotland later checks the return and asks for documents connected with the transaction and access to premises where relevant business records are held.

The overview page does not answer whether that request is valid. But it shows the right questions to ask:

• Does the request concern the buyer’s “tax position”?
• Are the requested papers “statutory records” or “business documents”?
• Is Revenue Scotland asking for information, for production of documents, or for inspection?
• Are the premises truly “business premises”?

The answer will depend on the detailed guidance and legislation behind each of those terms.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The difficulty is that the overview page is only a signpost. A reader might assume it contains substantive rules, but it does not. It simply tells you where the important definitions are discussed.

Another practical difficulty is that ordinary language can mislead. Many disputes in investigatory powers cases turn on apparently simple words. Whether something counts as a document, a business asset, or business premises can be fact-sensitive. The same is true where records are held digitally, where a property has mixed personal and business use, or where a person’s activities are not clearly a business.

It is also important not to treat guidance as the same thing as the legislation. The legislation creates the powers. The guidance explains Revenue Scotland’s view of how the terms should be understood. In a difficult case, the statutory wording remains the starting point.

Key takeaways

• This source page is an index to key definitions used in Revenue Scotland’s investigatory powers, not a detailed statement of the rules itself.
• Terms such as “tax position”, “statutory records”, “business premises”, and “produce documents” can have specific legal significance.
• In any LBTT compliance or enquiry issue, the right starting point is to identify the exact statutory term involved and then check the detailed guidance and legislation behind it.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Overview of RSTPA Guidance on General Meanings and Definitions

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