Document dispute

Information required under FA 2008 Sch 36 para 1

HMRC issued the taxpayer a cleaning business a notice to produce information under FA 2008 Sch 36 para 1. The documents required included bank statements purchase ledger mileage logs copies of the director’s loan and current accounts copies of all employees’ contracts and a copy of the capital/loan account for the amount owed by the company to the director.

The issue for the First-tier Tribunal was whether those documents were statutory records or reasonably required. The taxpayer said they were not. Referring to the decision in J Mathew (TC4342) the judge said the burden of proof lay with HMRC.

On bank statements the tribunal agreed with the Revenue that these were statutory records saying it was ‘hard to see how a company can submit a tax return which is not at...