Tax authority was not on a fishing expedition

The taxpayer who was neither resident nor domiciled in the UK was a director of a private UK company and also owned several UK properties. HMRC issued the taxpayer notices to file tax returns which were submitted.

In 2019 HMRC opened enquiries into the returns and issued notices under FA 2008 Sch 36 requesting information. It also issued a jeopardy assessment.

The taxpayer appealed to the First-tier Tribunal saying the Sch 36 notices were not reasonably required.

The tribunal said the notices were reasonably required. It rejected the taxpayer’s agent’s suggestion that they were a ‘fishing expedition’ saying the notice did not ask ‘indiscriminately for everything available’ but was a ‘carefully drawn-up list’ of documents which the HMRC officer deemed necessary to check the taxpayer’s position.

The taxpayer’s appeal was dismissed.

Note that initially the decision was not published because the taxpayer was...