A man accused of avoiding more than \u00a3650,000 in tax this week won an appeal against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), after it emerged that the tax authority had put the wrong date on an enquiry note.<\/p>\n
A tribunal ruled that the error \u2013 which concerned a reference to a non-existent tax year \u2013 was sufficient to invalidate the document.<\/p>\n
The case related to a taxpayer alleged to have taken part in a tax avoidance scheme in the financial year to April 2009. Two years later, HMRC sent the correspondence to inform him that his return was being examined.<\/p>\n
The tax authority had tried to argue that the date given was only one day out, and should thus be classed as a minor error \u2013 not serious enough to invalidate the notice.<\/p>\n
But the argument was refuted by the tribunal judge Jayne Bailey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe return which was described in the letter of 17 January 2011 is for a tax year which does not exist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe conclude that the disputed notice of enquiry is not in substance and effect in conformity with the intent and meaning of the Taxes Acts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case is fairly unusual and some experts have voiced their surprise that HMRC did not check the letter more thoroughly, given the sum of money involved.<\/p>\n
An HMRC spokesman said it was disappointed with the tribunal\u2019s decision and would consider an appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHMRC wins around 80 per cent of avoidance cases that are taken to litigation by the taxpayer and many more settle with us before reaching that stage,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tackle avoidance wherever we see it and litigate where necessary to ensure schemes are defeated and the tax due is paid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man accused of avoiding more than \u00a3650,000 in tax this week won an appeal against HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), after it emerged that the tax authority had put the wrong date on an enquiry note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1349,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}