Correct discovery

The trustee of a funded retirement benefit scheme trust (FURBS) completed a 2006/07 tax return using as a guide the return for 2005/06 submitted by a firm of chartered accountants.

The earlier return contained errors that were perpetuated by the trustee in the 2006/07 return. He also submitted the 2007/08 return repeating the mistakes made in the previous documents.

HMRC opened an enquiry into the 2007/08 return. It resulted in an assessment based on tax payable at the trust rate.

The Revenue later issued a discovery assessment under TMA 1970 s 29 in respect of the 2006/07 return. The trustee appealed against the discovery assessment.

The First-tier Tribunal said there was nothing in the returns for 2004/05 2005/06 or 2006/07 that would have caused HMRC to suspect there was an...