In Temple Retail v HMRC (TC03823 – 21 July 2014) the FTT found that a VAT assessment was out of time.
The issue was whether a VAT assessment – made on the basis that a company had made an error by not recharging certain costs to an associated company – was out of time. This would be the case if the assessment was made more than one year after ‘evidence of facts sufficient in the opinion of the Commissioners to justify the making of the assessment came to their knowledge’ (VATA 1994 s 73(6)(b)).
In Pegasus Birds [1999] STC 95 Dyson J had said: ‘The person whose opinion is imputed to the commissioners is the person who decided to make the assessment.’ The parties agreed that this was a Mr Mintoft. It was therefore necessary to establish when the ‘last piece of evidence’ was communicated to...