UT (Tax & Chancery) UT/2023/000096 - [2024] UKUT 00203 (TCC)

The Appellants, Anthony Outram (“AO”) and Ross Outram (“RO”), appealed to the Upper Tribunal against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal (the “FTT”) that there was a deliberate inaccuracy in their self-assessment returns for 2005/06 in which they had claimed losses as self-employed options traders. The Appellants had claimed to set those losses against other income in that year with the remainder being carried back to set off against income in preceding years.

By the time of the hearing before the FTT in these appeals, it was accepted by the Appellants that the Appellants were not entitled to the claimed losses. The issues between the parties narrowed further during the course of the FTT hearing, the result of which was that the only issue to be decided by the FTT was whether the extended time limit applied for HMRC to issue discovery assessments, which required HMRC to establish that the loss of tax or excessive relief was brought about deliberately.

The FTT’s decision was released on 27 April 2021 and is reported at [2021] UKFTT 126 (TC) (the “Original Decision”). The FTT dismissed the Appellants’ appeals. That decision was subsequently amended by the FTT and the amended decision was released on 25 September 2023 (the “Revised Decision”). One issue in the appeal before us was as to the basis on which those amendments were made, and that is addressed further below as part of the discussion of Ground 2. The Revised Decision was not published. We have attached the Revised Decision as the Appendix hereto. References to numbers in square brackets are to paragraphs of the Revised Decision unless the context indicates otherwise.

The Appellants had applied for permission to appeal against the Original Decision. The FTT granted permission to appeal on 25 September 2023.