R (oao Capital Accommodation (London) Ltd (in liquidation)) v HMRC

In R (oao Capital Accommodation (London) Ltd (in liquidation)) v HMRC (Upper Tribunal – 6 August) a company (C) went into liquidation in 2007. In April 2008 its liquidator applied for a substantial VAT repayment. In 2009 he asked HMRC to make a correction to C’s returns for the periods ending February and May 2005 moving output tax of £718 552 from the earlier period to the later one (so that it would be within the three-year time limit applying to the repayment claim which he had lodged in April 2008). HMRC declined to make the requested correction and the liquidator applied for judicial review. The Upper Tribunal rejected the application. Sales J observed that ‘despite requests to the liquidator HMRC have not been afforded access to the claimant’s books and records to check the figures put forward by the liquidator’. He therefore found that ‘the...