This week's opinion

The seemingly endless saga about the correct way for HMRC to enquire into loss carry-back claims under self assessment shows no sign of abating. The number of cases in which this has been an issue must be approaching double figures. The latest instalment  R (on the application of Derry) v CRC which will be analysed in a future issue of Taxation has just been heard in the Court of Appeal.

What interests me is not so much the decision but the fact that 20 years after the launch of self assessment there is still doubt over how the rules work. Loss carry-backs are hardly an obscure feature of the tax system and there must have been thousands of enquiries into claims to carry back relief since self assessment was introduced but these cases have shown that when the rules are examined their meaning...