No reason to allow correction

The taxpayer company provided accommodation for asylum seekers. It invoiced the Home Office for its services charging VAT.

HMRC informed the business that no VAT was due because the supplies were exempt from the tax.

The company paid VAT to the Revenue according to the figures in its return for the period ending February 2005. It went into liquidation in 2007.

The liquidator said some figures in the February 2005 return should have been included in the following year's return and as a result the company had overpaid VAT.

In April 2008 the liquidator asked HMRC to make a direction under reg 35 of the VAT Regulations 1995 SI 1995/2518 for a correction to be made to the subsequent return to allow the overpaid tax from the first document to be repaid because it was too late to obtain a repayment in respect of the...