Permission granted to cross-examine officer

The taxpayer was granted judicial review after HMRC refused its requests for repayment under the disguised remuneration repayment scheme (FA 2020 s 20). Broadly the scheme allows for the repayment of sums previously settled by agreement with HMRC to avoid the application of the loan charge. One of the criteria for repayment was whether there had been reasonable disclosure and whether particular information had been provided ‘as was sufficient for it to be apparent that a reasonable case could have made that the amount concerned was payable to the Commissioners’ (s 20(5)(d)).

The taxpayers claimed the HMRC decision maker had misapplied that requirement instead demanding that there was ‘a clear indication that an earnings charge should have been applied’. The taxpayers considered that this was an error of law. HMRC accepted that it was not the right test but disagreed that the officer had applied...