[2025] UKUT 166 (AAC)

The claimant accepted that this case is similar to HMRC vRS (No. 2) (TC) [2022] UKUT 246 (AAC), but submitted that that case was wrongly decided.

In RS (No. 2) the Upper Tribunal held that the phrase “the next tax year” is a reference to the whole of the next tax year, whereas the claimant’s claim was only for part of the tax year. It was accepted that that would equally apply in the present case.

However, the claimant submitted that claims for tax credits, whenever made, are not made for specific periods within a tax year. Rather, a claim is made generally for a particular tax year.

That is supported by s.5 of the TCA 2002 which provides for the date an award is to begin by reference to the date the claim was made, with no mention made of the specific period for which a claim is being made.

The TCR 2002 similarly only deal with the date of claim and not the period claimed for (save where a claim is made before the start of the relevant tax year, in which case the claim is still for the tax year as a whole). Backdating is provided for by treating the date of claim as being made earlier.

The tax credits claim form also supports the position that a claim is not made for particular periods, but is always made for a tax year as a whole.

As such, the claimant submitted that he did make a claim for the next tax year as a whole (despite the claim date being later than 6 April) and therefore was able to make a new claim when he did.

By the decision of 29 June 2023, the Tribunal confirmed determinations made by HMRC, namely that: