1 General news
1.1 The validity of a discovery assessment and the Charlton
case
HMRC has lost its appeal against the First-tier Tribunal
decision in the case of Dr Michael Charlton and Others
(TC01317)
This was a case where the taxpayer had given substantial
disclosure of the computational aspects of a scheme to use a
capital loss purported to be generated on a life insurance policy
in circumstances where there was no economic loss, to cover gains
realised on other assets. It was determined by the High Court and
Court of Appeal in a case involving another taxpayer that the
scheme failed from a technical perspective.
Mr Charlton's tax returns were submitted after the decision
of the High Court, with the DOTAS scheme reference number. An
oversight within HMRC meant that not all the tax returns with the
relevant SRN were enquired into, so that HMRC were out of time to
raise enquiries into Dr Charlton's and others' tax returns.
Thus HMRC sought to raise discovery
