Helen Adams (BDO) considers the extent of HMRC's powers on discovery in the light of recent case law.
Taxpayers want certainty. HMRC wants the ability to assess any additional tax whenever it realises insufficient tax was assessed in the past. Parliament balanced these competing interests by giving HMRC a limited window of opportunity within which to open self-assessment enquiries and to issue discovery assessments for tax years for which there are no open enquiries. Consequently taxpayers and their advisers sometimes challenge discovery assessments if they consider that HMRC either failed to meet the conditions for their issue or missed the deadlines.
R Atherton v HMRC [2019] UKUT 41 (TCC) is a recent example of such a challenge and is a useful reminder of some of the limits on HMRC’s powers to issue discovery assessments. The article focuses on the legislation for income tax and capital gains tax although similar...
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Helen Adams (BDO) considers the extent of HMRC's powers on discovery in the light of recent case law.
Taxpayers want certainty. HMRC wants the ability to assess any additional tax whenever it realises insufficient tax was assessed in the past. Parliament balanced these competing interests by giving HMRC a limited window of opportunity within which to open self-assessment enquiries and to issue discovery assessments for tax years for which there are no open enquiries. Consequently taxpayers and their advisers sometimes challenge discovery assessments if they consider that HMRC either failed to meet the conditions for their issue or missed the deadlines.
R Atherton v HMRC [2019] UKUT 41 (TCC) is a recent example of such a challenge and is a useful reminder of some of the limits on HMRC’s powers to issue discovery assessments. The article focuses on the legislation for income tax and capital gains tax although similar...
If you or your firm subscribes to Taxjournal.com, please click the login box below:
If you do not subscribe but are a registered user, please enter your details in the following boxes:
