Sufficient evidence to confirm goods had been exported to China

The taxpayers bought and sold clothes and accessories. They had one customer in China who bought a lot of their goods. HMRC raised an assessment in 2016 treating the exported goods as supplied in the UK due to the lack of export evidence held by the taxpayers. It later reduced the assessment after an internal review but an additional assessment was raised for later periods.

HMRC’s view was that the export evidence produced by the taxpayers did not meet the requirements of VAT Notice 703 para 3.3 which has the force of law. For example the notice confirms that ‘vague descriptions of goods quantities or values are not acceptable’ so a reference to ‘electrical goods’ on shipping documents would be inadequate. The description on Parcelforce documents referred to exports of the taxpayer’s goods as ‘personal effects’ and ‘clothes’. The Parcelforce receipts did not show the correct details...