TC09656 - [2025] UKFTT 01207 (TC)

Mr Feng submitted that, properly interpreted, this email is a request for a review or an appeal. He submitted that, due to the First Agent’s mother’s illness her mental state was such that she was confused and therefore wrote extension rather than review or appeal in the email in error. He further submitted that as HMRC in the Decision Letter only gave the option of a review or appeal, they should have read this email as requesting a review or appeal.

In our judgment the email dated 8 November 2023 is not a request for a review or appeal. The wording of the email

“in the exceptional situation, can I please request your kindly consideration to extend the deadline to respond to your assessment letter to around 15/12/2023”

is clearly a request for an extension of time. LL Ltd might reasonably have wanted an extension of time to decide whether to apply for either an appeal or a review. This was in circumstances where there was an illness in the First Agent’s family, and, according to the First Agent, Mr Luo was not in the country. An extension of time would permit the First Agent to give Mr Luo and LL Ltd advice about whether to pursue a review or appeal. The letter was not itself a request for a review or an appeal.

We find therefore that this email is a request for an extension, and is not a request for a review or appeal.