TC09548 - [2025] UKFTT 00700 (TC)

In King v Walden [2001] TC 822, Jacob J said:

“[57]…Assessments to tax are, in the first instance, made by an inspector (see s.29 of the TMA as it stood before amendment in 1994, now s.30A). If the taxpayer is unhappy, he may appeal within 30 days. If he does not appeal, the assessment stands. So the taxpayer's only method of challenge to an assessment is by way of ‘appeal’. Thus an appeal is essentially a defensive step, rather than offensive.

[58] In these circumstances I think it is artificial to say that proceedings are
instigated by the taxpayer. It is the assessments which instigate the
proceedings which come before the Commissioners, not the appeal itself.”

In KSM Henryk Zeman Sp Zoo v HMRC [2021] UKUT 0182 (TCC), a judgment of Adam Johnson J and Judge Hellier, the UT similarly said at [37]:

“Although technically the taxpayer is a claimant in the proceedings rather
than a defendant, in substance he is defending part of an enforcement action
by HMRC.”

In other words, an appellant’s grounds of appeal are a response to a decision made by HMRC.