A question of timing?

THE IMPLICATIONS OF the recent findings of the House of Lords in Deutsche Morgan Grenfell v CIR [2006] UKHL 49 were discussed by Neil Jamieson and Dan Smith in 'Lawful mistake' Taxation 25 January 2007 page 96. That case concerned the remedies available to a taxpayer to recover tax paid to HMRC under a mistake of law. It is significant as it confirmed that taxpayers cannot rely solely on TMA 1970 s 33 under which claims could be made to recover excessive tax paid by reason only of some error or mistake in a return.
Since 2003 the Government has in anticipation of the DMG finding embarked on a series of steps through which it sought to limit a claimant's right of recourse and block its attempts to reclaim tax which should never have been paid to HMRC in the first place.