B&M Retail has won an appeal at the First Tier Tribunal (FTT), with judge deciding the discount giant had a reasonable excuse to not know companies in its supply chain had failed to pay the correct excise duty on alcohol.

This was underlined as HMRC itself could not ‘establish conclusively whether excise duty had been paid on the relevant goods’ or where in the supply chain there was a problem.

The latest FTT appeal centred around a £1,172,340.94 penalty imposed by HMRC under a breach of paragraph 20 of Schedule 41 to the Finance Act 2008, related to the purchase of alcohol from wholesale intermediaries, where excise duty had purportedly not been paid.

The case started back in 2023, when it was first heard at the FTT, before going to the Upper Tribunal, and relates to events more than a decade ago.