UT/2019/000009 - [2024] UKUT 00176 (TCC)

This is an appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (“FTT”) published as Qais Majeed Ali v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 306 (“the FTT Decision”) which dismissed Mr Ali’s appeal against an excise duty assessment for £55,470. HMRC imposed the assessment on him in respect of their seizure on 29 July 2016, in London, of duty unpaid shisha tobacco that was in a van Mr Ali was unloading, and also in the lock up unit he was unloading the tobacco into. Mr Ali’s case was that the van and lock-up were owned by a company, Palm Palace Limited (“Palm Palace”), for which he was employed as a part-time driver and which owned a shisha café. He said he had bought the tobacco on the company’s behalf from suppliers in the UK believing that duty had already been paid on it.

The Upper Tribunal subsequently gave Mr Ali permission to appeal in 2019 (Footnote: ¹) on specified grounds. Those principally concern whether the FTT had erred in law in its treatment of whether 1) HMRC ought to have assessed the supplier Mr Ali said he had bought the tobacco from, and 2) Mr Ali had sufficient control of the tobacco as opposed to Palm Palace so as to be “holding” it within the meaning of the relevant excise duty legislation which HMRC relied on to impose liability on him.

We were grateful to Mr Ali for attending to represent himself, as he had done before the FTT, and to the translator appointed by HMCTS without whom Mr Ali’s participation in the hearing would not have been possible. We were also grateful to Mr Davies, counsel who appeared on behalf of HMRC for his clear and concise submissions which facilitated their translation.