Monthly Archives: June 2017

De Silva Case Heard at Supreme Court

Today the Supreme Court heard the claim raised by a Mr De Silva (and others) to determine whether HMRC are entitled to enquire into his claim for loss relief other than by opening an enquiry under Schedule 1A of TMA 1970 which is subject to a time limit that had elapsed prior to the date of the enquiry.

The claim was heard by Lord Neuberger, Lord Kerr, Lord Reed, Lord Hughes and Lord Hodge. Fuller details as well as the ability to watch the hearing can be reviewed at www.supremecourt.uk/current-cases/ and search on De Silva.

The LTAG officers were in attendance. From a wide number of perspectives we believe that the De Silva hearing assisted the LTAG claim. In the next few weeks LTAG members will be provided with an update on the LTAG claim.

At this point there are no further timing related claims that are scheduled in the court diaries so LTAG will be the next claim to be heard.

Please contact us if you are in one of the potentially affected LLPs we mention in earlier posts.

Court of Appeal allows appeal in Derry vs HMRC

On June 20th the Court of Appeal in Mr James Derry vs HMRC ruled that while HMRC are correct in trying to use various enquiry remedies at their disposal they need to do so in a manner which is procedurally correct. In the Judgement the Justices comment that there is a need for HMRC to take “obvious steps” to remedy an “erroneous” repayment. If they fail to do so then a repayment made for a particular tax year is by default permitted.

While the circumstances of Mr Derry differ to the LTAG claim this judgement makes it clear that the Court’s are willing to allow taxpayer claims against HMRC if there are substantive statutory procedural grounds.

The LTAG claim, while complex, has substantive statutory grounds.

Supreme Court to hear related case, De Silva – June 22nd

On June 22nd the Supreme Court will hear another related case to the LTAG claim after which there are no other related claims in the court diary.

The claim being heard is for an individual who made a carry back loss claim in the past and HMRC may not have used the correct enquiry mechanism to challenge that claim. If they did not, they are out of time to make any other alterations.

Some LTAG claimants have also made claims for prior years. Equally, many LTAG claimants have claims made for relief in the same year.

Over and above the claim to be heard at the Supreme Court on June 22nd the claim LTAG makes is that to recover any repayment HMRC needs to follow certain statutory steps. A discussion of these statutes will not be part of the related claim on June 22nd.

The LTAG team will nonetheless attend the hearing and provide an update to all LTAG members.