Connection with fraud

Should a decision of the First-tier Tribunal be set aside?

The taxpayer claimed input tax on transactions in mobile phones. HMRC refused on the ground the deals were connected to missing trader intra-community fraud and the taxpayer knew or should have been aware of that connection.

The First-tier Tribunal agreed that the company should have known the transactions were connected with fraudulent VAT evasion. The taxpayer appealed. It said it was not possible to understand from its decision why the First-tier Tribunal had concluded the company should have been aware of the fraud.
Mrs Justice Whipple and Judge Berner in the Upper Tribunal said there was no duty on a tribunal to deal with every argument but it had to give adequate reasons. The losing party had to be able to understand why it had lost. In this case the First-tier Tribunal had not provided sufficient analysis of the reasoning...