Case Reports

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Tax | Accounting software glitch excuse thrown out in CJRS appeal

Appellant pleads to tribunal not to ‘ignore substantive evidence of actual wage payments’ as director claims Quick Books software was not recording Real Time Information (RTI) submissions

3 Sep 2025

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Tax | ‘Rodents ate my expenses receipts’ rejected by tax tribunal

A bus driver ‘grasping at straws’ has lost a £28,000 appeal at the tax tribunal against HMRC discovery assessments as he had no evidence of expenses as rodents ate all his receipts

28 Aug 2025

Tax | Former Chelsea footballer hit with £466k tax bill

HMRC has won a victory at the tribunal after former footballer Craig Burley was told to pay a six figure tax bill related to historic investments in two film scheme partnerships

21 Aug 2025

Tax | Ex Tesco boss wins £1.5m pension tax dispute over Portugal DTA

A retired Tesco CEO has won a case against HMRC over an £1.5m claim for tax relief for SIPP pension withdrawals when he was living in Portugal, in an appeal centred around the UK-Portugal double tax treaty

21 Aug 2025

Tax | AI chatbot hallucinates cases in failed £13k tax appeal

A taxpayer has been rapped by tribunal judge after using AI chatbot to justify his argument against HMRC using non-existent tax cases

19 Aug 2025

Tax | Accountant loses £60k CJRS appeal due to payroll company misconduct

An accountancy firm has lost an appeal against almost £60,000 of assessments into eight furlough claims made ‘in good faith’ after contracted payroll company did not send any documents to HMRC

18 Aug 2025

Employment Tax

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Business | HMRC must disclose use of AI in R&D claims

A taxpayer has won a case about transparency at the tribunal after challenging HMRC’s refusal to disclose whether AI was used to assess R&D claims

11 Aug 2025

Tax | HMRC loses £9.3m Kittel case

A payroll company has won its appeal at the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) against more than £9m in penalties and VAT assessments as HMRC could not prove it was aware of VAT fraud

7 Aug 2025

Tax | Standish case – a warning for tax professionals

The Supreme Court decision in Standish on the use of inheritance tax planning in a divorce has implications for accountants as HMRC ramps up investigations, warns Rachel Cook, counsel, Peters & Peters

6 Aug 2025

Tax | Covid loan abusers ordered to repay £38k

Company directors that decided to give themselves a pay rise in order to claim more on the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) have been ordered to repay what they claimed

5 Aug 2025

Tax | HMRC wins £260m mini umbrella tax fraud case

A group of mini umbrella companies has lost a multimillion pound appeal at the Upper Tribunal against being de-registered by HMRC after they identified extensive VAT fraud taking place

1 Aug 2025

Tax | Feeding the backlog - hike in tax prosecutions will not work

Forcing more prosecutions into the crown court backlog will not recover lost taxes for HMRC in a swift, guaranteed and cost-effective way, says Sharron Boyce, associate at Brett Wilson

31 Jul 2025

Tax | HMRC part loses £10m trainee pilot VAT case

A middleman between trainee pilots and commercial airlines has won a VAT fight at tribunal as the training taking place in other countries fell out of the scope of UK VAT

31 Jul 2025