Read Him His Rights, Sergeant

Are tax-related penalties sought by the Inland Revenue 'criminal' penalties under the European Convention on Human Rights? In the recent case of King v Walden the High Court has said that they are. This article examines the decision and its very large implications for those dealing with tax investigations and their clients.

The case

This was a complicated and long-running tax investigation in which the Revenue believed that various amounts of capital amassed by the taxpayer over many years were derived from a guest house business. The Commissioners rejected arguments that the business was not his own but that of a partnership involving various of his children some of them minors at the relevant time. Alternatively he had claimed that the business was carried on on behalf of his elderly father who lived abroad. A string of assessments were upheld as were determinations that...