[2025] UKUT 00275 (TCC)

The Tribunal misunderstood section 118(2) of the Taxes Management Act 1970, which is a deeming provision, of which the effect in this case is that the Applicant is deemed to have filed her tax return by the statutory filing date. Hence, HMRC's notice sent in March 2022, purporting to open an enquiry, was out of time and invalid. In so far as the Tribunal considered that the case of Raftopoulou [2018] EWCA Civ 818 held otherwise, the Tribunal erred.

The Tribunal ought to have held that HMRC ought not to be allowed to proceed with the enquiry, and ought to have directed HMRC to cancel the penalties they have purported to impose for not complying with their intrusive demands for information and documents, because it was conspicuously unfair and an abuse of power by HMRC to turn round and insist that the tax return was filed late, as they have done in order to validate the notice they served in March 2022 and the demands they have served since for information and documents and penalties. The Applicant did what they invited or encouraged her to do by the email dated 26 Jan 2021, and they ought not to be permitted to take advantage of it. It turns it into a trap.