Other cases that caught our eye: 25 February 2022

In Hargreaves v HMRC [2022] UKUT 34 (TCC) (11 February 2022) the UT allowed HMRC’s appeal to make a discovery assessment under TMA 1970 s 29 despite the FTT previous ruling that the assessment was invalid on staleness grounds. This follows the decision in Tooth [2021] UKSC 17 where the Supreme Court rejected the concept of ‘staleness’. We are now starting to see the effects of the court’s decision working through the tribunals. In this case however for the assessment to be valid other conditions must be satisfied. The taxpayer faced an uphill battle because the FTT had in case it had been wrong on the staleness point found all of those conditions to be satisfied. In the event the taxpayer was able to convince the UT that the FTT’s decision on the ‘negligence condition’ was wrong in law but this...