In Adrian Salmon v HMRC (TC03789 – 8 July 2014) the FTT decided that HMRC's discovery assessment was valid.
HMRC had issued a discovery assessment as a result of Mr Salmon having wrongly (albeit innocently) claimed to set losses derived from capital allowances in his yacht chartering business against other income. Relief was not available as Mr Salmon had not been involved personally in the business (FA 2007 s 75).
The issue was whether the discovery assessment was valid which depended on whether HMRC should have been aware of the underassessment of tax at the time the enquiry window had closed (TMA 1970 s 29(5)).
Mr Salmon’s contention was that the description in his return of his business as ‘yacht chartering and skippering’ suggested the inherently passive activity of letting out a yacht on a bareboat basis. This in turn should have alerted HMRC to the...
