In this case, HMRC asked the Upper Tribunal to impose a tax-related penalty of £14,031,851.01 on Paul Baxendale-Walker under paragraph 50 of Schedule 36 of Finance Act 2008 (FA 2008) for failure to comply with an information notice request about his tax affairs.

The release of the judgment was delayed by nearly a year since the original hearing in July 2023 until Judge Mark Baldwin agreed to anonymise the name of the HMRC officer involved.

Schedule 36 gives HMRC powers to gather information for the purposes of checking a person’s tax position, including issuing information notices and imposing penalties for failure to comply.

Under the rules, an HMRC officer can issue a penalty if they have reason to believe that, as a result of the failure or obstruction, the amount of tax that the person has paid, or is likely to pay, is significantly less than it would otherwise have been.