S McCumiskey v HMRC

In S McCumiskey v HMRC [2022] UKFTT 128 (TC) (12 April 2022) the FTT allowed the taxpayer's appeal against HMRC’s attempts to recoup an outstanding SEIS relief claim and ruled that an agent cannot delegate without the taxpayer’s authority and that a discovery assessment to recover lost tax by the fraudulent conduct of his subagent was not permissible.

The taxpayer (M) had suffered a traumatic period in his life but had now started his own business as an electrician. M had no experience of tax but was told he would need to file self-assessment tax returns. Mr Brown a passing acquaintance of M was a director of Alpha Tax Consultants Ltd. M instructed Alpha (not Mr Brown personally) to complete and file his tax return for 2015/16 and he provided Mr Brown with the information requested to enable this. Mr Brown subsequently told M that the matter was ‘sorted’ and...