The court considered what it was for the Revenue to ‘discover’. It accepted previous judicial statements that ‘discover’ means ‘comes to the conclusion from the examination it makes and from any information it may choose to receive’ or ‘has reason to believe’ or ‘satisfies himself’. Lord Reading CJ said: ‘The surveyor may be mistaken in the ‘discovery’, but if there is information before him which he could, and did honestly believe the person to be liable to the duties, the only remedy is by the appeal prescribed by the Statutes.’ and
‘there must be information before the surveyor which would enable him, acting honestly, to come to the conclusion that a person is chargeable.’
Judges:
Lord Reading CJ
Citations:
[1915] 7 TC 59
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Momin and others v HM Revenue and Customs ChD 15-Jun-2007
The appellants challenged an assessment to income tax, saying that they had not been supported by a bona fide discovery of any loss of tax, and was otherwise unsupported by evidence.
Held: ‘The appellants have over a period of many years . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Income Tax
Updated: 28 March 2022; Ref: scu.267647
