Third party’s carelessness caused failure

The taxpayer made several enterprise investment scheme (EIS) claims for the years end 5 April 2015 2016 and 2017 without holding the relevant compliance certificate as required under ITA 2007 s 203(1). He accepted this was the case and that he was not therefore entitled to make claims.

In March 2021 HMRC raised discovery assessments to recover the tax resulting from the claims. The taxpayer appealed saying he had submitted the relevant self-assessment tax returns at the correct time so HMRC had all the information it needed. Further he had not been careless in submitting incorrect EIS claims because he had appointed a firm of advisers to ensure everything was correct.

The First-tier Tribunal said it was ‘abundantly clear’ from the taxpayer’s evidence that he relied on his advisers. They had looked after him without any problems for many years and ‘he clearly placed...