Paul Ellis(1) North Yorkshire Properties Ltd(2) v The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Judge Jones,Judge Greenbank |
| Neutral Citation | [2022] UKUT 00254 (TCC) |
| Subject Matter | 21 September 2022 |
| Court | Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) |
| Published date | 23 September 2022 |
1
UT Neutral citation number: [2022] UKUT 00254 (TCC)
UT (Tax & Chancery) Case Numbers: UT/2021/000135 & 136
Upper Tribunal
(Tax and Chancery Chamber)
Hearing venue: The Royal Courts of Justice,
Strand, London WC2
Hearing date: 13 June 2022
Decision Date: 21 September 2022
Before:
JUDGE ASHLEY GREENBANK
JUDGE RUPERT JONES
Between:
PAUL ELLIS (1)
NORTH YORKSHIRE PROPERTIES LIMITED (2)
Appellants
and
THE COMMISSIONERS FOR HIS MAJESTY’S
REVENUE AND CUSTOMS
Respondents
Representation:
2
For the Appellant: Michael Firth, Counsel, instructed by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain LLP
For the Respondents: Howard Watkinson and Marika Lemos, Counsel, instructed by the
General Counsel and Solicitor for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
DECISION
Introduction
1. The Appellants appeal against a direction made by the First Tier Tribunal (“FTT”) in a
written decision dated 13 April 2021 (the “FTT Decision”) following a case management
hearing which took place by video on 13 October 2020.
2. HMRC made an application on 2 June 2020 for the Appellants to disclose a wide range of
material to HMRC in relation to ongoing substantive appeals, the details of which are set out
below. The FTT granted the application and made a disclosure direction, the precise terms of
which are set out below but were summarised at [4] of the FTT Decision. The direction
required the Appellants to disclose material to HMRC including:
(1) hard copy and electronic documents held by the Appellants relating to the day-to-day
operations, management, financial and tax affairs of six relevant companies;
(2) documents held by the Appellants relating to the personal affairs of Mr Darren
Broadbent, a business associate of the first Appellant, Mr Paul Ellis; and
(3) correspondence, held by the Appellants, between any of Mr Ellis, Mr Broadbent and
a firm called Craggs & Co. which represented both of them, in respect of an investigation
by HMRC under HMRC Code of Practice 9 (“COP 9”).
3. The Appellants, with the permission of the FTT judge, appeal to the Upper Tribunal against
the FTT’s disclosure direction. The Appellants submit that the FTT erred in law in making the
direction in three ways.
(1) The FTT erred by admitting and relying on a letter from a liquidator of one of the
companies, RSM Restructuring Advisory LLP (“RSM”), which was produced on the
evening before the hearing (12 October 2020) which stated that the liquidator had not
given copies of material to HMRC. This letter was relied upon by HMRC to counter the
Appellants’ argument that HMRC were already in possession of the material they sought
through disclosure.
(2) The FTT erred in failing to address and take into account whether HMRC had been
aware since January 2018 of the existence of the documents and material held by Mr Ellis
in relation to which they sought disclosure.
(3) The FTT erred in granting the disproportionately wide and unfocussed disclosure
application.
4. We are grateful to all counsel for their written and oral submissions: Mr Watkinson leading
Ms Lemos for HMRC, and Mr Firth for the Appellants.
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