Is there a lot of phooey over Hoey?

Readers will have seen recent articles in Taxation concerning the Court of Appeal decision in Hoey and others v CRC [2022] ECWA Civ 656 (see ‘Friday the 13th’ by Matt Hall 2 June 2022 page 8 and ‘Does any reader know an MP?’ by Robert Maas 30 June 2022 page 8).

Both of these articles raised concerns about the lack of review or appeal when HMRC exercised its discretionary power in ITEPA 2003 s 684(7A) retroactively.

In this article I set out some further points that lead me to an alternative view. This is not as an apologist for HMRC or to diminish the issues raised in the aforementioned articles but rather in seeking to engender further debate on what are considered to be some fundamental issues that as tax practitioners and professionals we should all be considering.

Analysing interactions

Let’s look...