Judicial review claim is not an excuse

In 2016 HMRC issued closure notices to the taxpayer for 2001-02 and 2002-03. Claiming the closure notices were not validly issued the taxpayer did not pay the tax and did not appeal against them. HMRC warned that it would begin bankruptcy proceedings to recover the alleged debt.

The taxpayer then applied for judicial review challenging HMRC’s ability to threaten bankruptcy proceedings against him on the basis of what he considered to be invalid closure notices. His application failed with the Supreme Court ultimately refusing to hear his appeal. The taxpayer then paid the tax due.

During these proceedings HMRC issued surcharge notices (TMA 1970 s 59C). The taxpayer said some of these were invalidly issued a point HMRC conceded so it sent a manually created set after it became apparent that the taxpayer had not received some of the initial ones. It also...