JP Whitter (Water Well Engineers) v HMRC

In JP Whitter (Water Well Engineers) v HMRC [2018] UKSC 31 (13 June 2018) the Supreme Court found that HMRC is not required to take into account the consequences on a business when revoking registration under the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) (FA 2004 Pt 3 chapter 3).

JP Whitter was registered for gross payment under the CIS scheme and had failed to comply with the requirements of the scheme without a reasonable excuse. HMRC had therefore revoked its registration (under s 66) without taking account of the likely effect of revocation on the company’s business. The company contended that this was a failure to take account of a material consideration in breach of both domestic public law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Supreme Court observed (as was common ground) that the word ‘may’ in s 66 suggested that HMRC had a discretion...