The issue arose after an R&D tax expert submitted a freedom of information (FoI) request to HMRC about its use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems like ChatGPT and Gemini, and large language models (LLMs), ‘specifically within the context of the R&D tax credits compliance team’.

Thomas Elsbury, co-founder of Novel, a research & development (R&D) tax relief consultancy firm, brought the case against the office of the Information Commissioner, the oversight body for data protection and data use in the UK, after it refused to overrule HMRC’s original decision not to disclose information about the tax authority’s use of AI.

At the tribunal, the appellant, Tom Elsbury, argued that that the Commissioner ‘wrongly weighed the public interest in relying on a “neither confirm nor deny” response’.

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