In Newcastle United Football Company Ltd v HMRC [2023] EWHC 3021 (Admin) (29 November 2023) the High Court (HC) considered an appeal by way of case stated from the Crown Court (CC) relating to the decision of the CC to refuse an application for the return of retained digital copies of documents.
The underlying documents had been seized by officers of HMRC in connection with a criminal investigation into the tax affairs of the appellant. HMRC elected to discontinue the criminal investigations but informed the appellant that their investigations had revealed serious non-compliance by the appellant with its tax obligations (with HMRC issuing VAT assessments and pursuing claims in respect of class 1 NICs against the appellant). As such whilst HMRC agreed to return all hard copy material seized it stated that it would retain digital copies of all material it considered relevant to the alleged non-compliance and...
