HM Revenue and Customs v Cotter: CA 8 Feb 2012

Mr Cotter’s accountants had submitted a second tax return adding claims to loss relief in the following year. The claims were contentious, but he invited a review by the Revenue asserting that the losses wiped out any liability to tax. The Revenue said they would investigate but pursued the tax it said was due in full based upon the return submitted.
Held: The appeal succeeded. If the Revenue wished to dispute an item contained in a tax return it had to follow the procedure set out in section 9A of the 1970 Act. That would have given Mr Cotter a right to appeal to the tribunal: ‘The dispute boils down to the correct procedure for the Revenue to use. The Revenue contends that the relief could not be claimed against income or gains for the year of assessment. Therefore it was bound to use the separate procedure for contesting loss relief claims made otherwise than in returns. The appellant contends that the Revenue should have followed the procedure for disputing items contained in a return under section 9A of the Taxes Management Act 1970.’

Judges:

Arden, Richards, Patten LJJ

Citations:

[2012] EWCA Civ 81

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Taxes Management Act 1970 9A, Income Tax Act 2007 128

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

CitedBlackburn (HM Inspector of Taxes) v Keeling CA 21-Aug-2003
The tax payer sought to have reflected in his PAYE coding, his substantial trading losses arising from his activities as a Name /underwriter at Lloyds in 2003.
Held: The underwriting year 2003 ends in the year of assessment 2003/4, and . .
CitedAutologic Holdings Plc and others v Commissioners of Inland Revenue HL 28-Jul-2005
Taxpayer companies challenged the way that the revenue restricted claims for group Corporation Tax relief for subsidiary companies in Europe. The issue was awaiting a decision of the European Court. The Revenue said that the claims now being made by . .
Appeal FromRevenue and Customs v Cotter ChD 14-Apr-2011
The taxpayer’s accountants had submitted a tax return amending the taxpayer’s own return adding claims for losses. The accountant acknowledged the contentious nature of the claim and invited a review. The Revenue sought now to recover the tax due . .
CitedLangham (HM Inspector of Taxes) v Veltema CA 26-Feb-2004
The tax inspector had sought to re-open a tax assessment outside the time limit provided. He had discovered that a house had been given to the tax payer by his employers. The taxpayer said this had been discoverable from his self-assessment tax . .

Cited by:

CitedCotter v Revenue and Customs SC 6-Nov-2013
This appeal asked as to the boundary between the jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) and that of the county court or the High Court, and the legality of the approach which the Revenue took to entries which Mr Cotter, had made in a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Income Tax, Taxes Management

Updated: 04 October 2022; Ref: scu.450975