TC09548 - [2025] UKFTT 00700 (TC)

Under the heading “the case law”, I said this:

“The circumstances here are entirely different from those in the case law to which HMRC has made reference. In Rapid Brickwork[2015] UKFTT 190there were two appeals. In relation to the first,as I said at [23] of that judgment:

“HMRC issued a closely typed letter, running to over six pages with two appendices. The letter set out the detailed reasons for the assessment under the headings “Remuneration Trust” and “Factoring Scheme”.”

In relation to the second appeal in Rapid Brickwork, HMRC had sent the company “a detailed analysis of the points at issue, being the “remuneration trust” and the “factoring scheme”, see [39] of the judgment.

In response, Rapid Brickwork’s grounds of appeal merely said that “the company's arguments ‘are well documented throughout more than six years of correspondence…”; Rapid Brickwork also denied it had been told “the basis of the liability”, see [28] and [40]. I held that those replies were “manifestly inadequate” responses to HMRC’s detailed reasoned decisions.

Here, it is HMRC that has not explained the reasons for its assessments, so the position is very different.

In Bluecrest v HMRC [2025] EWCA Civ 23, the Court of Appeal decided the case on the basis of a point which had not previously been in dispute between the parties, see [95] of that judgment. The Court then had to deal with the procedural issue, that “in a complex tax appeal to the FTT, the issues between the parties are defined by their respective statements of case” (or, in most cases, by the appellant’s grounds of appeal and HMRC’s Statement of Case). The Court held that it could (and should) nevertheless expand the issues to encompass the meaning of Condition B, and also held that the appellant was not thereby prejudiced, because it had the burden of proof and could have taken the point had it so wished (see [96] and [108]). There is no parallel with this case, because the appellant in Bluecrest was well aware of the reasons why HMRC had issued the Determinations, see the FTT’s substantive decision published under reference [2022] UKFTT 204 (TC) and the earlier closure notice application, published under [2014] UKFTT 644 (TC).”