Tooth v HMRC: The staleness debate

Few topics have generated as much controversy among tax professionals as that of whether staleness limits HMRC’s power to issue discovery assessments. As cases have worked their way through the tribunal system judges have taken very different views on the matter. Some have taken it as an article of faith that staleness is an integral part of discovery others taking the view that there is no such concept and that the jurisprudence in this area has gone badly wrong.

For a flavour of the extreme divergence of judicial opinion (though both judges accepted that they were bound by precedent) compare the First-tier Tribunal decisions in Kashif Mehrban (TC8039) and Peter Marano (TC7685). It was inevitable therefore that the Supreme Court would be called upon to make a definitive pronouncement on the subject and with the release on 14 May of the decision in CRC v Tooth ([2021]...