A recent Supreme Court decision examined in some detail HMRC’s powers in relation to issuing a discovery assessment. HMRC generally use discovery assessments where the statutory time limit for looking into a return has expired.
If certain conditions are satisfied, then HMRC can make a discovery assessment:
The case in question centred on two main issues. Firstly, whether there had been a deliberate inaccuracy in a 2007-8 tax return enabling HMRC to issue a discovery assessment within the extended 20-year limit and secondly, whether HMRC had made a valid discovery.
The First-tier Tribunal (FTT), the Upper Tribunal (UT) and the Court of Appeal all decided that HMRC could not assess the taxpayer. The Supreme Court held that the interpretation of the tax return by HMRC did not properly consider the whole document and that there was no inaccuracy. Commenting further, the Judges opined that even if there was, they would not have been satisfied that such an inaccuracy was deliberate. The Supreme Court also rejected the notion of 'staleness' in respect of the discovery assessments.