Peter Williams from Kent described himself as a chartered surveyor and personally funded Conditionaire Energy Savers Limited, which exported air conditioning units to Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East. He claims to have made very few sales in the UK.

In 2020 HMRC conducted a review of the Conditionaire’s VAT status under section 73 of the VAT Act 1994.

This resulted in a ‘best judgment’ tax assessment for a personal liability notice (PLN) totalling £117,409 on 12 February 2020.

On 24 February 2020, HMRC issued a penalty assessment for £99,797.65 under Schedule 24 of Finance Act 2007, bringing the total bill to £217,206.65.

Williams appealed both notices to the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) in November 2020 claiming that the bills should be sent to the company not him as an individual as 100% of the fees applied to the company.