This week's opinion

No sooner had the ink dried on my article about Judge Wikeley telling his fellow judges to ‘get real’ in their approach to tax credit appeals than another of his judgments was published (VO v HMRC). This in many ways is even more extreme in its criticism. At one point – and I have never seen this before – he said: ‘By this stage I was beginning to wonder if the First-tier Tribunal judge in question had read the file and in particular the appellant’s explanation of events.’ HMRC did not get off lightly either: ‘In short this is yet another sorry tale of HMRC’s institutional incompetence and inefficiency which could well have led to injustice were it not for the persistence of the appellant.’

I will not go through the case – it is set out at here – but I do want to comment on one feature...