Tax cases

Wholly unreasonable

The appellant applied for costs against the Revenue in relation to his appeals against Schedule E assessments for the years 1983-84 to 1995-96. The assessments for the years 1983-84 to 1988-89 were raised in 1990 and the others periodically thereafter.
To cut a long story short the Revenue eventually in December 2003 wrote to the appellant's solicitor saying that it no longer intended to defend the appeals. The Revenue's Solicitor's Office declined to provide an explanation citing instead legal professional privilege.
In order for costs to be awarded the taxpayer had to show that the Revenue had acted wholly unreasonably and this the Special Commissioners accepted 'without hesitation'. They gave a full and reasoned decision explaining what had gone on with regard the appeals in question and this can be summarised as follows.
The commissioners said that the Revenue...