HMRC’s latest guidance on Fleming claims: examining the issue of proof and evidence of claims

HMRC’s general invitation to submit Fleming claims did not go unheeded by taxpayers. Such unexpected liabilities are always unwelcome particularly in the current era of austerity. HMRC is now trying to deal with the resulting deluge of claims many of which go back decades even to the introduction of the tax itself.

One of the issues gaining greater prominence is the difficulty of proving claims of such antiquity: documents have not been retained and memories have naturally faded. As a result Fleming claims present peculiar problems for taxpayers namely the absence of records that irrefutably prove the claim or precisely establish the quantum.

Indeed many claims are being rejected at this threshold stage: HMRC simply does not accept the alleged basis of the claim or its quantum.

HMRC’s recent guidance

HMRC’s recent guidance ...