Readers' forum : Third-party discovery

My client is a footballer. During 2013-14 the football club paid agent fees on his behalf. An amount paid by an employer on a footballer’s behalf is a taxable benefit-in-kind and is included on a P11D.

The fees paid were in line with the representative contract between the footballer and the agent and the correct amount was included on the P11D. The benefit-in-kind was shown on the employment pages of our client’s 2013-14 tax return and a ‘white space’ entry was included. The tax on the agent fees had been collected through his PAYE coding notice.

No enquiry was opened into 2013-14 under TMA 1970 s 9A. However a year after the tax enquiry window had closed HMRC opened a check into the 2013-14 return stating it had received information from a third party (the football authorities) indicating that the agent fee payments declared on the return were...