Taxpayer had not been careless

The taxpayer’s daughter was born in December 2014 and his wife received child benefit from 5 January 2015. He was not liable to pay the high-income child benefit charge (HICBC) at that point because his annual income was less than £50 000. He became liable to pay the charge in 2015-16 when his income exceeded £50 000. However because he was an employee he was not required to complete tax returns and did not file any when he became liable to the charge during 2015-16 or for the next three years.

On 13 May 2021 HMRC issued discovery assessments to collect unpaid HICBC for the years 2015-16 2016-17 and 2017-18. The taxpayer appealed.

The hearing discussed the legislation (FA 2022 s 97)  introduced after the Wilkes appeal ([2023] STC 133) which gave HMRC retrospective power to issue discovery assessments unless the taxpayer had raised the Wilkes...