In The Barty Party Company Limited v HMRC TC06116, the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) held that an information notice was not valid as HMRC did not justify the period covered thereby.

Under Schedule 36 FA 2008, HMRC can require a taxpayer to provide information or produce a document provided that it is “reasonably required” by the officer for the purpose of checking the taxpayer’s position. The Schedule does not permit HMRC to require the creation of a document, only provision of existing documents.

On 10 November 2016, HMRC issued an information notice under Schedule 36 (the Notice) to The Barty Party Company Limited (BPC), who appealed on 14 February 2017.

The Notice was issued in relation to the VAT position and requested:

Please provide the statutory records for 01/02/2012 to 30/04/2016 as follows:

Other documents or information that we need

BPC appealed on the bases that:

The FTT held:

Comments

If HMRC policy is to request information outside the period for which they can raise assessments, it appears such notices should be challenged as a matter of course.

BPC raised a series of areas where they believed HMRC had acted unreasonably during the enquiry; the FTT noted that they did not have jurisdiction to rules on these.

Links

The Barty Party Company Limited v HMRC [2017] UKFTT 0697 (TC)

Sch 36 information notices (subscriber version)


 

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