The Era Of AI

Felicity Harber v The Commissioners for HMRC (2023) UKFTT 1007 (TC )

In this recent case, the First-Tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) gave a stark warning to litigants about use of AI in litigation. Ms Harber, a litigant in person, had failed to notify and pay HMRC the relevant Capital Gains Tax (CGT) due following the sale of a property. This subsequently led to a penalty of £3,265.11 being imposed, which the applicant appealed, seeking to rely on having a reasonable excuse for her failure to pay the CGT.

In an attempt to win the appeal, Ms Harber used nine fictitious cases she had found on ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated tool. When she put the cases to the Tribunal at the hearing, judges were unable to locate any of them on any available databases. Ultimately, Ms Harber lost her case. The Tribunal concluded that she did not have a reasonable excuse for her failure to notify HMRC of her liability for Capital Gains Tax. Even though the Tribunal