Too late to appeal

The taxpayer business submitted a VAT return in May 2006 for the period of February to April 2006 declaring input tax of approximately £9.8m.

In March 2008 HMRC said not all the input tax would be repaid. The taxpayer appealed.

Before the appeal was heard the Revenue wrote on 28 April 2009 to the business in respect of the tax but the taxpayer’s adviser said the letter had not been received. A copy was subsequently received by the taxpayer on 8 March 2010.

The taxpayer appealed first having to explain why a late appeal should be allowed.

The First-tier Tribunal did not accept that the business had not received the letter of 28 April at around the time it was sent. Nor was it satisfied the taxpayer had provided suitable reasons as to why time to appeal should be extended.

The tribunal concluded that the...