Not all expenses were allowable

The taxpayer who was an employee received child benefit. His adjusted net income exceeded £50 000 in 2018-19 and 2019-20. HMRC opened a compliance check and issued discovery assessments and penalties for six years.

HMRC later withdrew all the penalties and the assessments for the four earlier years on the basis the taxpayer had reasonable excuse.

The taxpayer appealed saying he had reasonable excuse for all the years assessed and was entitled to various expenses and reliefs for 2018-19 and 2019-20. He said he had had to buy a chair and computer monitor to enable him to work from home during the Covid-19 lockdown and had not been reimbursed for these by his employer. In addition he claimed home working expenses as permitted by HMRC at the time ie it was not necessary to provide evidence that his employer required him to work at...