Going to first tier tribunal

[PracticalTax]

Hi

I work with a lawyer on a mutual client's tax. We have been dealing with a s9A enquiry for a couple of years now, and before Christmas we threatened going to the Tribunal to get a closure notice. We've now done this, and have had the case listed for the end of January.

I've never been involved in a Tribunal hearing (whether into a closure notice request or otherwise) so would be grateful if anyone has any advice on how I should prepare for this, or what I can expect on the day. As I understand it, the onus is on HMRC to prove that they need more time to continue the investigation, but I'm worried that we may have to rebut this or bring evidence etc to show that HMRC are dragging their feet.

Also, I'm wondering whether I am allowed to address the Tribunal, not being a solicitor - obviously my colleague will be able to as a solicitor, and I can feed info to her, but I'm not sure how formal the procedure is and whether I have to sit there in silence.

Any help will be gratefully received.

Thanks

[wamstax]

Clearly you need to fully prepare your case before going to FT tribunal and additionally it is unlikely that the Tribunal will allow 2 advocates for the appellant/pursuer. It will have to be decided who exactly is going to take the listing and it will be inevitable that you will have to rebutt HMRC's case for continuation. You can hardly expect to go before a tribunal and just sit there and win.

It will also depend on whether you are seeking the closure notice
(i) only because they are "dragging their heels" - in which case the tribunal may consider that instead of the closure they might stipulate that reasonable information should be sought and responded to and enquiry decision taken within a timescale -
or (ii) some other basis or you are refusing to respond to reasonable requests for information and requiring them to make a decision to close or pursue - in which case you would need to be prepared to defend your stance.

"Your side" will need to be prepared to fully detail the legislation that is appropriate and how and why you should be granted the closure notice. As a first step you should go back to basics and look at the case as a whole. Have there for example been resistance on your side to provide information that would need to be corrected. Equally you would need to identify any weaknesses in your stance and have a defendible position and argumetn ready to destroy HMRC's "equally reasonable" stance.

You could do well ploughing through HMRC's manuals and guidance about going to tribunal to see what time limits you will need to adhere to - in for example exchanging agreed documents or facts prior to any hearing and looking out for HMRC making your life hell with last minute surprisies that you had not prepared for.

[PracticalTax]

Thanks. The enquiry has been going on for some time and we have complied with all requests for information. We had a conference call with HMRC in the summer last year and the inspector admitted that he doesn't have much of a case. A new inspector has now been appointed and is going back to asking very basic fact-finding questions (whereas we felt that we'd got through all these and were now down to technical argument).

I understand that we will not get an immediate closure, rather than the tribunal is likely to say they must wrap everything up within a set period. We are hoping that HMRC won't just say "ok, here's the assessment for the tax" which we will then have to appeal.

We've scheduled time to go back over the papers, review the facts and get the legislation to hand. And i will take some time to go through the Revenue manuals to see whether this helps.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[wamstax]

Will be interested to hear about your foray into the "unknown" and while it would be interesting to hear of particular problems or concerns please remember that HMRC might be reviewing the thread.

[wamstax]

you can always annoy them and send a PM