Complaint about behaviour

Tribunal’s jurisdiction in relation to HMRC conduct

HMRC assessed two unauthorised payments charges on the taxpayer. These had arisen from two loans made by an approved occupational pension scheme to the taxpayer who was the sponsoring employer of the scheme.

The taxpayer appealed. He also complained that HMRC had abused its powers and behaved inappropriately.

The First-tier Tribunal considered only the preliminary issue in relation to HMRC’s conduct. In essence the taxpayer argued that the department had failed to return calls or provide copies of documents had ignored the business’s agent and had not provided notes of a meeting.

The judge said the tribunal had no general supervisory jurisdiction to consider a taxpayer’s claims based on public law concepts of fairness or inappropriate behaviour by HMRC. He said the taxpayer’s allegations about the department’s conduct did not relate to the statutory requirements governing the raising of assessments.

He...