Private client review for November 2022

In this article, the November monthly update review for Tax Journal, Edward Reed and Alice Mason look at a number of private client developments.

This month, we comment on a couple of further victories for HMRC in the SDLT-realm: in Averdieck, the FTT quashed the taxpayers' claim that a right of way over land meant their property was "mixed use"; and in Wilby, HMRC successfully argued that a discovery assessment regarding an SDLT return can be valid notwithstanding that one of the discovering officers cannot be named.

A further two cases regarding information notices are victories (for now) for the taxpayers: in Newpier, the FTT held that HMRC cannot continue an enquiry where the taxpayer has no more information to provide; and in Davies, HMRC was unable to request information beyond that which was reasonable.

Finally, we look at two recent "nudge letter" campaigns by HMRC which demonstrate HMRC's active use of data collected, including by other government departments.

Read the full article.