Don’t phone home

Application to appear as advocate by telephone

The taxpayer’s representative applied for permission to attend a hearing as advocate by telephone on medical grounds.

The appeal concerned a personal liability notice. HMRC was seeking to make the taxpayer personally liable for 50% of the penalties imposed on a company for a deliberate inaccuracy in its return.

The First-tier Tribunal refused the application. The judge said the penalty at stake was large and there was likely to be ‘significant cross-examination’ of the taxpayer and HMRC. Further the hearing was listed to last two days.

If the representative was unable to attend the tribunal but advocacy was required it was ‘reasonable’ to expect him to make arrangements for counsel or for other representation.

The judge said it was ‘conceivable’ that appeal hearings could be conducted by telephone but ‘such cases would be very few and far between’. The tribunal was...