Claimant was not self-employed

The taxpayer was a self-employed minicab driver until 2018 when he became the sole director and shareholder of Fly Services Ltd. The company filed dormant accounts for the year to 30 September 2019 and micro company accounts thereafter.

The taxpayer applied for and received self-employed income support scheme payments in June September and December 2020. HMRC later raised assessments to recover these payments on the basis that the taxpayer did not carry on a trade that was adversely affected by the pandemic. It agreed that being a director did not prevent the taxpayer resuming self-employment but said he had not provided any evidence that he actually did resume self-employment in 2019-20 or later years. The taxpayer amended his 2020-21 self-assessment return to include self-employment but the only income shown was the support payments and unspecified expenses. He did not report any self-employment in his 2021-22 return.

The taxpayer appealed.

The...