The Upper Tribunal has dismissed an appeal from the FTT (Wagstaff v HMRC [2022] UKUT 327 (TCC)).
A personal liability notice (PLN) was issued to Mr Wagstaff in respect of NICs payable by a company of which he was a director (WHL). The notice was served under the Social Security Administration Act 1992, s. 121C.
The company had entered Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) in November 2015.
The only issue of contention was whether the PLN was (mostly) out of time by virtue of s. 9 of the Limitation Act 1980. The Upper Tribunal had no hesitation in rejecting the appeal:
“When a company, such as WHL, enters into CVL it is well-established that the liabilities
of the company are determined at the date of the commencement of the CVL. It is equally well- established that limitation periods in respect of those liabilities, to the extent that they have not already elapsed, cease to run from the date of the commencement of the CVL.”
Further:
“When a company enters into CVL, its unsecured liabilities are inevitably in and to be determined within the liquidation. There is no other regime that applies to determine the existence of WHL’s liabilities and their enforceability for limitation purposes. Similarly all the company’s assets are within the liquidation.”
https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKUT/TCC/2022/327.pdf
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In Taxpayer Safeguards – Rights and Protections for Individuals, written by the late Robin Williamson and now updated by Keith Gordon, the authors explore the whole spectrum of protections available to individual taxpayers.
