Jon Stewart & Co v HMRC

Cathya Djanogly

In Jon Stewart & Co v HMRC [2016] UKFTT 619 (5 September 2016) the FTT found that HMRC had been right not to allow an offset of employer NICs.

Mr Stewart owned a restaurant. His company had paid statutory maternity pay (SMP) to an employee and offset the SMP against its Class 1 NIC liability. HMRC had however found that the employee had not been entitled to SMP as she had not met the qualifying threshold set by lower earnings limit (LEL) for SMP. There had therefore been no entitlement to an offset.

Mr Stewart had applied for judicial review of HMRC’s decision and HMRC had applied to strike out his appeal. Mr Stewart contended that HMRC’s decision to collect the underpayment of NIC had been unreasonable; that as a public body it had failed to exercise discretion; and that the decision was unfair and unjust...

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