Anonymity in a tax appeal?

KEY POINTS

• Should some tax tribunal cases be anonymised to avoid the potential misuse of information?
• The Tribunal Procedure Rules allow redaction of names in limited circumstances.
• If the motive is to establish the correct tax payable why was HMRC so keen on publicity?
• Which is the most important: openness or justice?
• Without a substantive hearing the correct tax position is unknown and useful guidance is lost.

I recently represented a well-known actor at the First-tier Tribunal. We did not get as far as discussing tax because the first hurdle was whether the taxpayer could have a private hearing. In our opinion it was essential that personal details could be discussed without the risk of some elements of the media using (or misusing) the information. In the modern world...