Investors in a series of film finance tax schemes sued the tax QC who had produced written opinions for the scheme promoter, which were then shared with prospective investors. The Court rejected the investors' claims, on the basis that the QC owed them no duty of care in preparing the opinions, and that even if he had owed them a duty, the views he expressed in the opinions were consistent with those of a reasonable QC. Read more

In Zipvit Ltd v HMRC, the CJEU has held that, where a contract for services provides for VAT to be charged in addition, a taxable person cannot claim to deduct an amount of VAT for which it has not been charged and which it has therefore not passed on to the final consumer. Read more

In Embiricos v HMRC the Court of Appeal has provided clear guidance on the circumstances in which a partial closure notice can be issued by HMRC to bring finality to a discrete aspect of an enquiry.  Although the decision was concerned with a dispute regarding domicile status, it has broad application and is therefore essential reading for those tasked with handling an HMRC enquiry. Read more

In Tinkler v HMRC [2021] UKSC 39, HMRC had not validly served a notice of enquiry on the taxpayer. However, the Supreme Court held that the taxpayer was prevented from relying on this fact (in order to dispose of a tax dispute) as a result of the operation of the doctrine of estoppel by convention. This was principally because the taxpayer and his advisers had, for a long period of time, corresponded with HMRC on the assumption that the notice of enquiry had been validly issued. Read more

The Court of Appeal has considered HMRC's, and the Tribunal's, usual practice of hearing applications for the pre-approval of compulsory information notices in private, and without the participation of the intended recipient of the notice (or, where different, the relevant taxpayer).  Unfortunately for those on the receiving end of such notices, the Court has determined that this practice should continue. Read more

In R (Haworth) v HMRC, the Supreme Court has provided welcome guidance in relation to the follower notice regime, confirming that a notice may be issued only where HMRC believes that there is "no scope for a reasonable person to disagree that the earlier ruling denies the taxpayer the [relevant tax] advantage".  It presents HMRC with a high bar, but one that is justified given the draconian nature of the regime. Read more

In a decision restoring common sense, the Supreme Court in HMRC v Tooth has determined that for conduct to be culpable as deliberate there must (generally) be an "intention to mislead".  Less encouragingly (though not determinative in the case) the Court was not persuaded that a discovery could become stale, thereby preventing an otherwise "in time" discovery assessment from being made, for the purposes of the statutory framework relating to such assessments. Read more

In Dodika v ULGH [2021] EWCA Civ 638, the Court of Appeal considered whether the Defendant (buyer) complied with the requirement to give "reasonable detail" of the matter giving rise to a tax claim under the SPA when notifying that claim to the Claimants (sellers).  The tax claim arose in connection with an ongoing transfer pricing enquiry (conducted by the Slovenian tax authority) of which the sellers were already aware.  We consider the Court's decision (in favour of the buyer) in this blogpost. Read more