Argument based in reality

Application to postpone tax and National Insurance

The taxpayer owned a company for which he was the sole signatory on its bank account. However the company had never been registered with HMRC. After receiving an evasion referral form HMRC carried out a 20-year investigation into the affairs of the taxpayer and his wife. The officer offered the taxpayer an opportunity to enter the contractual disclosure facility (CDF) under code of practice 9. At the same time the officer issued jeopardy and discovery assessments. The taxpayer appealed and applied to postpone all the tax and National Insurance assessed (TMA 1970 s 55). HMRC refused.

The First-tier Tribunal said the taxpayer’s grounds for postponement ‘would at any appeal against the assessments have a real and not fanciful basis’.

There were ‘strong’ arguments that the taxpayer could show the HMRC officer had failed to make assessments to her best...