Refusal of adjournment did not deny taxpayers a fair hearing

The taxpayers appealed against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal not to adjourn the resumed hearing of an appeal that had been adjourned part-heard.

The Upper Tribunal considered first the extent of the prejudice to the taxpayers of not being able to cross-examine two HMRC witnesses. The First-tier Tribunal had decided such questioning would have been of ‘limited value’ to the taxpayers. Counsel for the taxpayers had been unable to attend due to illness and they had not instructed anyone else. After a lengthy analysis of the issues including the reasons for cross-examination the Upper Tribunal agreed with the lower tribunal that the prejudice to the taxpayers ‘in not being able to cross-examine HMRC’s witnesses through their own counsel as they would have wished was nothing like as great as at first blush it might appear’.

On the problems associated with changing counsel the Upper Tribunal supported the...