The Upper Tribunal has rejected an appeal by the taxpayer relating to procedural matters – Kingston Maurward College v HMRC (PROCEDURE) [2023] UKUT 69 (TCC).
The Upper Tribunal’s ruling included the following comments:
” … the appellant’s pleaded case was on an all or nothing basis. The FTT had a discretion whether, nevertheless, to allow the appellant the further opportunity to agree and, if necessary, litigate the question of the extent of residual tax but chose not to. We consider the approach the FTT took was one that was clearly open to it. The decisions were under appeal were against decisions in which HMRC refused the appellant’s claims for specified amounts of input tax in respect of specified periods. The hearing which took place before the FTT over three days in May 2019 was listed as a final hearing. There was nothing to suggest any agreement had been reached, or direction sought from the tribunal that the hearing only deal with issues in principle. We have concluded above that HMRC’s pleading was not inadequate and described how the evidence in relation to some courses not having any link with the appellant’s commercial activities arose in cross-examination of the appellant’s witnesses in relation to the appellant’s case that all of its activities constituted a single integrated whole. There was nothing in the way the issue arose which meant that the FTT was wrong in law to proceed as it did.”
The Upper Tribunal rejected the appellant’s case that the FTT erred in law by omitting to treat the decision as one of principle.
https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKUT/TCC/2023/69.html
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In Tax Appeals – Law and Practice at the FTT, tax barrister Keith Gordon analyses some 500 precedents to show how the FTT rules are applied in practice, and how taxpayers may use the tribunal system for appealing against tax decisions.
