Email problems were understandable

The taxpayer’s original appeal concerned inheritance tax specifically whether loan notes attracted business property relief. However the appeal was struck out because he failed to comply with an ‘unless’ order requiring production of documents.

The taxpayer then made a late application to ask for the appeal to be reinstated. This was on the grounds that his agent had failed to deal with the matter largely because key correspondence had gone into his junk email folder. His agent explained this was due to his being involved in extensive correspondence with a firm of lawyers. He was receiving electronic files of a considerable size which were clogging up his firm’s server and affecting his ability to store documents.

The First-tier Tribunal decided that ‘in the circumstances’ of the case it was the ‘fair and just course’ to allow the out-of-time application. The taxpayer’s agent had an understandable...