Mahmood
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 07 November 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] UKFTT 0798 (TC) |
| Date | 07 November 2017 |
| Court | First Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) |
[2017] UKFTT 0798 (TC)
Judge Tony Beare
Mr F. Afzaal of Direct Accountancy Solutions Limited, appeared for the appellant
Mr S. Goulding, Officer of HM Revenue & Customs, appeared for the respondents
Income tax – Notice of appeal to the tribunal given four months late – Whether permission for the appeal to proceed should be given – No.
[1] This decision arises out of an appeal made by the Appellant against a decision by HMRC, on 19 December 2014, to issue assessments and penalties for the tax years of assessment ending 5 April 2007, 5 April 2008, 5 April 2009, 5 April 2010 and 5 April 2011. This decision relates only to the preliminary question of whether permission to notify the Tribunal of that appeal outside the specified statutory time limit should be granted.
[2] The origins of this matter are to be found in a letter of 7 July 2015 from HMRC to the Appellant in which HMRC set out its views in relation to the appeal. After offering the Appellant the right to ask for a review or to notify his appeal to the Tribunal, the letter went on to say that:
If I do not hear from you and you do not notify your appeal to the tribunal, your appeal will be treated as settled by agreement under section 54(1) of the Taxes Management Act on the basis of my view of the matter as set out above, and the tax chargeable based on my view will be due and payable.
[3] HMRC did hear from the Appellant following that letter and, between 7 July 2015 and 4 August 2016, there were further exchanges of correspondence between HMRC and the Appellant's advisor Mr Afzaal. This culminated in a letter from HMRC to Mr Afzaal dated 4 August 2016, in which HMRC concluded by saying that, if the Appellant wished to continue with his appeal, he should notify the Tribunal to that effect within 30 days of the date of that letter. HMRC then referred Mr Afzaal to the website setting out the procedure to be adopted in notifying an appeal to the Tribunal and containing the prescribed form.
[4] In the event, the Tribunal did receive a notice of appeal from the Appellant in the prescribed form but, although that notice bore a date of 4 September 2016, it was not received by the Tribunal until 6 January 2017, 4 months after the expiry of the 30 day period mentioned in HMRC's letter of 4 August 2016.
[5] In terms of the position under the relevant legislation, the position is as follows.
[6] In its letter of 7 July 2015, HMRC notified the Appellant of an offer to review the matter in question. There is no evidence from the papers which have been provided to me that the Appellant ever accepted that offer or that a review ever took place.
[7] Under section 49C Taxes Management Act 1970 (“TMA 1970”), if an appellant does not notify HMRC that it accepts HMRC's offer to review a matter within the “acceptance period” of 30 days beginning with the date of the document by which HMRC notify the appellant of that offer, the matter in question is to be treated as if it were settled by agreement under section 54 TMA 1970 and the appellant is unable to repudiate or resile from that agreement. This does not apply if the appellant has notified his appeal to the Tribunal under section 49H TMA 1970 (see sub-section 49C(6) TMA 1970). Under section 49H TMA 1970, in circumstances where HMRC has offered to review the matter in question and the appellant has not accepted the offer, the appellant is required to notify his appeal to the Tribunal within the “acceptance period” – which is the period of 30 days beginning with the date of the document by which HMRC notified the appellant of the offer to review the matter in question – but, if...
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