Airline Placement Limited appealed to the High Court against an assessment of £10.7m related to a non-statutory clearance (NSC).

The key issue was whether or not Airline Placement had a ‘legitimate expectation’ related to the NSC, which was issued by HMRC in 2009.

NSC applications are only available where there are genuine points of uncertainty in the legislation.

The basis of the application is that the decision and assessment raised by HMRC, which was issued for the periods 03/17 to 12/12 for £10,717,426.00, was in breach of the company’s legitimate expectation.

HMRC argued that the request for the NSC had been ‘materially inaccurate’ and ‘misleading’ as there had not been a full disclosure, meaning that no legitimate expectation could arise.

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