A taxpayer has won a case against HMRC on the basis that HMRC described the tax year as “ending 6 April 2009”.
No prizes to the reader who spots that there is an error here.
As a result, the tax payer avoided £653,000 of tax when they appealed against an HMRC charge.
A tribunal ruled that HMRC’s mistake describing the tax year as “ending 6 April 2009” — a day after the actual date — was big enough to invalidate an enquiry notice”.
Jane Bailey, the tribunal judge, said HMRC had stated an intention “to enquire into a tax return for a year which did not exist”.
Interestingly, I was serving on a jury many years ago when a case was thrown out because of a somewhat similar case, but that is another story.
HMRC argued that it was clear which tax year was referred to and it was “only one day out”. This was not helped by the fact that HMRC had run out of time to challenge the return. HMRC are considering an appeal.
The lesson to be learned by tax payers is to check penalty notices word by word.
