Lessons from the Court of Appeal judgment in Archer

Judicial review (JR) is normally only available when it is the remedy of last resort because there is no adequate alternative remedy and only then if the JR claim is made promptly and no later than three months after the grounds to make a claim arose.

According to the Court of Appeal in R (oao Archer) v HMRC [2019] EWCA Civ 1021 (see page 4) when a taxpayer challenges the issue of an  accelerated payment notice (APN) normally the procedure under FA 2014 s 222 for making representations to HMRC about the APN is an adequate alternative remedy to JR (see paras 90 and 96).

Therefore if a taxpayer makes a JR claim to challenge HMRC’s decision to issue an APN before exhausting the procedure for making representations (including awaiting HMRC’s response to such representations) the taxpayer may be penalised in costs for such failure. This...