Repayment claim for five years under UK-Bangladesh double tax convention

The taxpayer was a Bangladeshi national. He came to the UK as a student in August 2009 and returned to Bangladesh in October 2014. While in the UK he was also employed on a part-time basis and income tax was deducted from his earnings.

In February 2018 the taxpayer claimed repayment of the tax he had paid for the years 2012-13 to 2016-17 because under article 19 of the UK-Bangladesh double tax convention students are not liable to UK tax on their earnings.

HMRC accepted the taxpayer was within article 19 and after checking its records made a repayment for 2013-14 and 2014-15. It did not repay the tax for 2012-13 because that claim was outside the four year time limit (TMA 1970 s 43). It did not repay any tax for 2015-16 and 2016-17 because the taxpayer had no earnings during those years....