Limitation on company’s liability to pay National Insurance contributions

The taxpayer was the sole director of a company which entered into creditors’ voluntary liquidation (CVL) in November 2015. In March 2019 HMRC issued a personal liability notice (PLN) to him in respect of the company’s National Insurance liabilities for 2009-10 to 2013-14. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal against the notice.

The sole consideration for the Upper Tribunal was whether the PLN had been issued out of time. A requirement for issuing a PLN was that the company had to be liable to pay the liability at the time the notice was issued. The taxpayer said that under Limitation Act 1980 s 9 the National Insurance liabilities were subject to a limitation period of six years so that the company was no longer liable to pay the contributions when the notice was issued in March 2019 - except for any arising in periods...