The Commissioners of Inland Revenue do not have, any more than does any other emanation of the Crown, any power to suspend or dispense with laws. ‘It is at this point that there arises what Mr Potter, for the taxpayers, has denominated as a serious constitutional question; namely what rights the Inland Revenue Commissioners have to pick and choose when recovering tax. The Solicitor-General said, and doubtless rightly said, that the commissioners are under no duty to recover every halfpenny of tax which may be due. One may say ‘Amen’ to that very readily, because the costs of recovery of extremely small amounts of tax would far outweigh the tax recovered. One expects the tax authorities to behave sensibly. In this connection I was referred to section 1 of the Inland Revenue Regulation Act 1890 and to section 1 of the Taxes Management Act 1970, but I do not think that either of these provisions has any real bearing on the matter. What the revenue authorities, through the Solicitor-General, are here claiming is a general dispensing power, no more and no less. He submitted that the system of extra-statutory concessions was well known and well recognised, and that what was happening in the present case was no more than the grant of an additional extra-statutory concession. In the first place, I, in company with many judges before me, am totally unable to understand upon what basis the Inland Revenue Commissioners are entitled to make extra-statutory concessions. To take a very simple example (since example is clearly called for), upon what basis have the commissioners taken it upon themselves to provide that income tax is not to be charged upon a miner’s free coal and allowances in lieu thereof? That this should be the law is doubtless quite correct; I am not arguing the merits, or even suggesting that some other result, as a matter of equity, should be reached. But this, surely, ought to be a matter for Parliament, and not the commissioners. If this kind of concession can be made, where does it stop; and why are some groups favoured as against others?’
Walton J
[1979] Ch 198
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Regina on the Application of Wilkinson v The Commissioners of Inland Revenue CA 18-Jun-2003
The claimant had not received the same tax allowance following his wife’s death as would have been received by a woman surviving her husband. That law had been declared incompatible with Human Rtights law as discriminatory, but the respondent . .
Appeal from – Vestey v Inland Revenue Commissioners HL 1979
Taxes are imposed upon subjects by Parliament. A citizen cannot be taxed unless he is designated in clear terms by a taxing Act as a taxpayer and the amount of his liability is clearly defined. A proposition that whether a subject is to be taxed or . .
Cited – Churchhouse, Regina (on the Application of) v Inland Revenue Admn 4-Apr-2003
The taxpayer was a revenue informer one whose trade is described by Coke as ‘viperous vermin [who] under the reverend mantle of law and justice instituted for protection of the innocent, and the good of the Commonwealth, did vexe and depauperize the . .
Cited – Futter and Another v Revenue and Customs; Pitt v Same SC 9-May-2013
Application of Hastings-Bass Rule
F had created two settlements. Distributions were made, but overlooking the effect of section 2(4) of the 2002 Act, creating a large tax liability. P had taken advice on the investment of the proceeds of a damages claim and created a discretionary . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 July 2021; Ref: scu.184329
