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Letters constitute an assessment

27 February 2020
Issue: 4734 / Categories: Tax cases
Aria Technology v CRC, Court of Appeal, 19 February 2020

The taxpayer said that the two letters HMRC had sent assessing it to VAT were not an assessment but were rather a correction of figures in the VAT return. They did not meet the statutory requirements for an assessment under VATA 1994 s 73. The basis of HMRC’s decision to deny input tax was that some transactions carried out by the taxpayer were alleged to be connected with the fraudulent evasion of VAT that it knew or should have known about.

The First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal dismissed the taxpayer’s appeal.

Lord Justice Singh in the Court of Appeal said the relevant principles on making an assessment from case law were:

  • there was no statutory definition of an assessment rather it was an act of HMRC constituting their determination of the amount of VAT due;
  • no formality was required for an assessment under any statute or regulation;
  • no particular form was...

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