VAT penalties:Aizio Associates Ltd and others v HMRC [2023] UKFTT 576 (TC) (29 June 2023) is in many ways a straightforward case about penalties for incorrect VAT returns. It does have one point of interest however. Could HMRC charge a penalty where it made an assessment to recover input tax which was denied for lack of evidence if the necessary evidence existed at the time the return was made? The company director claimed and HMRC accepted that the company’s records were contained on a laptop which he had left in Slovakia in a rush to return to the UK at the start of the Covid lockdowns in 2020 and was subsequently stolen. The theft took place after the returns in question had been filed. The FTT held that it did not follow ‘that a subsequent denial of input tax creates an inaccuracy in a return which...
