In HMRC v M Breen [2023] UKUT 252 (TCC) (16 October 2023) the Upper Tribunal (UT) reversed a decision of the FTT which had reinstated an appeal which had previously been automatically struck out following the failure of the taxpayer to comply with an ‘unless order’.
The underlying dispute concerned income tax assessments for 16 years up to 2011/12 with the tax at stake totalling nearly £1m. HMRC considered that the taxpayer was liable to tax on undeclared income and gains but he argued that there was no UK liability owing to his Irish domicile. He appealed against the assessments in 2017 and there followed a series of delays in providing information with extensions and failures to meet deadlines set by the FTT. Finally in September 2020 an FTT judge issued an order that unless the taxpayer provided specified information by 15 October the...
