Guidance on Definition of ‘Provide Information’ in Tax Notices Context

What “provide information” means in Revenue Scotland notices

In Revenue Scotland information notices, “provide information” means actively giving Revenue Scotland factual information in a usable form. It is not enough just to let Revenue Scotland inspect records or point to where material can be found. A person may need to extract facts, answer factual questions, or prepare calculations, analyses, or translations, but cannot generally be required to provide opinion or speculation.

• “Provide” is an active requirement: the information must be delivered to Revenue Scotland, not merely left available for inspection.
• “Information” means facts or factual knowledge about a person, event, or situation, and does not include opinion or guesswork.
• Revenue Scotland cannot require someone to create a document just so it can be produced as a document, but it can require factual information even if that means preparing a new written response.
• Compliance may involve answering factual questions, producing calculations, carrying out factual analyses, or translating foreign-language records.
• When reviewing a notice, it is important to check whether it asks for a document or for information, and whether the request stays within factual material rather than evaluative judgment.

Scroll down for the full analysis.

What “provide information” means in Revenue Scotland information notices

This page explains what Revenue Scotland means by “provide information” when it issues a taxpayer notice, third party notice, or identity unknown notice. The point matters because a notice may require more than simply allowing Revenue Scotland to inspect existing records. In some cases, the recipient may have to supply factual material in a usable form, including by preparing something new such as a calculation or translation.

What this rule is about

The source material deals with information-gathering powers under the Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014. Those powers allow Revenue Scotland to require information in certain formal notices. The key question is what counts as “providing information”.

This is important because there is a practical difference between:

• making material available for Revenue Scotland to find and extract itself, and
• actively giving Revenue Scotland the information it has asked for.

The source makes clear that “provide” is an active concept. The information must reach Revenue Scotland. It is not enough merely to point to where it might be found if Revenue Scotland would then have to go and obtain it for itself.

What the official source says

Revenue Scotland’s guidance says that, in this context, “provide” means giving someone something they need. The information must be delivered to Revenue Scotland, rather than merely being left available for collection or inspection.

The guidance also explains that “information” means factual knowledge or facts about a person, event, or situation. It does not include opinion or speculation.

A further distinction is made between documents and information:

• Revenue Scotland cannot use an information notice to require a person to create a document simply so that the document can then be produced as a document.
• But it can require a person to provide information, and that may involve creating a new document as a practical way of supplying that information.

The guidance gives examples of this. “Providing information” may include:

• answering specific factual questions
• preparing computations or calculations
• carrying out analyses
• translating documents written in a foreign language

So the legal focus is on the substance being supplied: factual information. A new written form may be used to communicate that information, even if no such document existed before.

What this means in practice

If Revenue Scotland asks for information under one of these notices, the recipient should not assume that compliance is satisfied by saying, in effect, “the material is somewhere in our files”. If the notice requires information to be provided, the recipient may need to extract, organise, calculate, or translate the relevant facts and send them to Revenue Scotland.

At the same time, the guidance draws a boundary. Revenue Scotland is not entitled to require opinion or speculation. Nor does the guidance suggest that a person can be compelled to invent material that does not exist or to express a judgment as if it were a fact.

In practical terms, the notice may require work to be done, but only where that work is part of communicating factual information. For example:

• adding up figures from underlying records may be required if that is the way to provide the information requested
• translating an existing foreign-language record may be required so that the factual content is actually provided
• answering factual questions based on records may be required even if no single existing document contains the answer in the exact form requested

This can matter in tax enquiries because the most useful information is often not sitting in one ready-made document. It may need to be assembled from records.

How to analyse it

When looking at a notice that requires information, it helps to ask the following questions.

• What exactly has Revenue Scotland asked for: a document, or information?
• Is the request directed at facts, or does it stray into opinion or speculation?
• Would compliance require only handing over an existing item, or would it require extracting and presenting factual material?
• If some work is needed, is that work simply a practical way of providing factual information, such as a calculation, summary, or translation?
• Would the information actually reach Revenue Scotland in usable form, or is the response merely telling Revenue Scotland where it could look for itself?

This framework helps separate three different situations:

• producing an existing document
• providing factual information, which may involve preparing a new written response
• being asked for opinion, speculation, or something beyond factual information

The source material supports the second category, but not the third.

Example

Illustration: Revenue Scotland issues a notice asking for the amounts paid under a series of land transactions and how the totals were calculated. The recipient has invoices and ledger entries, but no single summary document.

On the source material, it would not be enough simply to say that the invoices are available for inspection. The recipient may be required to provide the figures to Revenue Scotland in a usable form. That could include preparing a schedule showing the amounts and calculations, even if that schedule did not previously exist.

By contrast, if Revenue Scotland asked the recipient to speculate about why another party behaved in a certain way, that would go beyond factual information as described in the guidance.

Why this can be difficult in practice

The main difficulty is the line between factual information and something more evaluative.

Some requests may look factual but involve judgment in the way they are answered. For example, an “analysis” may be straightforward where it is just sorting and presenting underlying facts, but more contentious if it involves interpretation, assumptions, or opinion. The source material indicates that information can include analyses, but it also says information does not include opinion or speculation. That means the exact nature of the analysis matters.

Another practical difficulty is the distinction between creating a document and providing information. The guidance says a person cannot be required to create a document merely so it can then be produced as a document. But the same person may still have to create a new written response if that is the means by which factual information is provided. In practice, the legal character of the request depends on what Revenue Scotland is really asking for.

A further issue is proportionality of effort, although the source text itself does not set out a detailed test for that here. The guidance only explains the meaning of “provide information”. It does not fully resolve every dispute about the scope of a particular notice.

Key takeaways

• “Provide information” means giving Revenue Scotland the factual information it needs, not merely making material available for Revenue Scotland to retrieve itself.
• Information means facts or factual knowledge, not opinion or speculation.
• A notice may require a person to prepare a new calculation, analysis, or translation if that is how the factual information is to be provided.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2026

Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Guidance on Definition of ‘Provide Information’ in Tax Notices Context

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