Taxpayer’s withdrawal of appeal was misinterpreted

The taxpayer appealed against discovery assessments and a closure notice. However he then withdrew his case and as a result the First-tier Tribunal dismissed his appeal except for a discovery assessment for 2010-11. This was on the basis that the discovery was stale.

In light of the Supreme Court’s comments in CRC v Tooth [2021] UKSC 17 that the concept of staleness was wrong in law HMRC asked the taxpayer to state the grounds of his appeal. He confirmed simply that he was contesting the assessment.

The Upper Tribunal made an 'unless direction' which required the taxpayer to provide grounds of his appeal and warning him that failure to comply could result in him being debarred from defending HMRC’s appeal. He failed to provide any grounds so the tribunal debarred the taxpayer from taking any further part in the proceedings.

The Upper Tribunal said it would...