Issues arising from the FTT Lucas decision

The recent First-tier Tribunal case involving Dennis Lucas (tinyurl.com/ftttc9550) has quite rightly attracted a great deal of interest among tax professionals. In a nutshell Mr Lucas a UPS delivery driver approached a firm of ‘advisers’ to make repayment claims on his behalf after some of his colleagues had received tax refunds. It turned out that the claims – for business travel and subsistence – had no substance and were not based on any information provided by the taxpayer. HMRC raised discovery assessments to recover the excessive repayments and the tribunal while expressing great sympathy for the taxpayer upheld the assessments on the basis that there was no basis for the claims. It also upheld the extended time limit assessments saying that the ‘adviser’ was acting on behalf of the taxpayer in bringing about a deliberate loss of tax.

Time is of...