B A Jafari v HMRC

In B A Jafari v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 692 (13 November 2019) the FTT found that an assessment was stale and fiercely criticised HMRC for not bringing this issue to the tribunal’s attention.

HMRC had issued a closure notice and a discovery assessment in relation to an under-declaration of income from the appellant’s property interests. It had erroneously issued a closure notice on 24 February 2016 in respect of the 2009/10 tax year not realising that there was no enquiry open into that tax year. It had eventually realised that the 24 February 2016 closure notice for 2009/10 was invalid and purported to cure the defect by issuing a s 29 discovery assessment on 15 August 2018.

During the hearing the FTT had observed to HMRC that it was plain that the discovery for 2009/10 had been ‘stale’ when the discovery assessment had been issued...