Information requested was unavailable

The taxpayer – a charity – submitted its corporation tax return claiming charity tax relief on payments made by the charity to its creditors.

HMRC raised an enquiry to check claim and asked the taxpayer for more information. The taxpayer provided some information but said it was unable to obtain anything further. It said that because the transactions had taken place more than 20 years ago it was ‘unreasonable’ to expect the information relevant to them to be available. Further it was not in HMRC’s power to assess for such periods so the documents could not be reasonably required before the enquiry was closed.

However HMRC continued to seek information and said that the enquiry could not be closed without it. The taxpayer applied to the First-tier Tribunal for a direction that HMRC close the enquiry. HMRC said that it still had concerns about whether the...