Assessment time limits

In addition to the well-known four-year cap for VAT assessments, there are other time limits including a one-year deadline for HMRC to raise an assessment from the time that the pertinent facts come to their knowledge.

If the assessment using those facts postdates their knowledge of the facts by more than one year, the assessment is out of time. Application of this rule therefore tends to focus on what HMRC knew, and in what way it knew it, at what point in time.