Buckingham Bingo v HMRC

In Buckingham Bingo v HMRC [2018] UKFTT 257 (8 May 2018) the FTT found that a taxpayer that had foregone its appeal against HMRC’s decision could not resurrect its right of appeal.

Buckingham Bingo (BB) was a bingo operator. It had foregone a claim for £1.6m (relating to bingo participation fees). Although the validity of its claim had been confirmed by the FTT in Carlton Clubs [2011] UKFTT 542 HMRC had refused it and BB was not prepared to incur the costs of challenging HMRC. Therefore in September 2012 BB wrote to HMRC indicating its decision not to appeal HMRC’s decision set out in a July 2012 letter. However in September 2016 following the FTT’s decision in KE Entertainments [2016] UKFTT 508 it sought to resurrect the claim in a letter to HMRC. In January 2017 HMRC indicated that no statutory review...