For Accountants, Solicitors & Tax Advisers
These practitioner-grade analyses go beyond the consumer-facing guides available elsewhere. Each article draws on primary legislation, case law with full neutral citations and HMRC’s published policy positions to give advisers the technical depth needed to advise clients in high-stakes tax investigations, insolvency situations and compliance risk scenarios. Topics range from HMRC’s evolving information powers under Finance Act 2024 to the boundaries of legal professional privilege in dawn raids.
HMRC Information Powers: Finance Act 2024 Changes
FA 2024 introduces new employer PAYE reporting requirements from 2025–26. Analysis of Sch 36 FA 2008, the 2023 call for evidence and digital transformation implications.
Read guide →Making Tax Digital & the New Penalty Regime
The new points-based late submission and two-stage late payment penalty regime rolls out 2026–2028 for income tax. Interaction with Sch 24 FA 2007 and what advisers must do now.
Read guide →Directors’ Duties in the Twilight Zone & HMRC
When insolvency becomes probable, director duties shift to creditors, including HMRC as preferential creditor since December 2020. Post-BTI v Sequana analysis with misfeasance exposure.
Read guide →Director Disqualification & HMRC Debt: Defence Strategies
HMRC is a significant source of disqualification proceedings under CDDA 1986. Grounds, the interaction with PLNs and civil investigations, and defence strategies for practitioners.
Read guide →Cryptoassets & HMRC Investigations: 2025–26
HMRC is actively investigating undeclared crypto gains. CARF data sharing from 2026, nudge letters, the Digital Disclosure Service and managing crypto disclosure for clients.
Read guide →Legal Professional Privilege in HMRC Investigations
The boundaries of LPP in information notices and dawn raids are narrower than many assume. What is protected, what is not, the crime-fraud exception and the waiver trap.
Read guide →Discovery Assessment Staleness: Case Law Analysis
HMRC v Tooth [2021] UKSC 17 and the staleness doctrine analysed. Running a staleness or deliberate inaccuracy challenge at the FTT, with a worked CRS-data example.
Read guide →HMRC Criminal Investigation: Legal Framework
How HMRC decides between civil and criminal investigation, PACE powers, the caution, interview procedure and managing the transition from civil to criminal proceedings.
Read guide →Corporate Reorganisations: Exchanges, SSE, Degrouping and Clearances
Share-for-share exchanges, the substantial shareholding exemption, degrouping charges, demerger routes and how HMRC attacks the main purpose condition.
Read guide →Gifts With Reservation, Settlor-Interested Trusts and Excluded Property
Why most home-gifting arrangements fail, what makes a trust settlor-interested, when excluded property status breaks down and how HMRC challenges each.
Read guide →Failure to Notify Penalties: Schedule 41 FA 2008
How Sch 41 penalties are built, the twelve-month unprompted nil-penalty window, behaviour, quality of disclosure, offshore uplifts and reasonable excuse.
Read guide →Corporation Tax Losses: Restriction, Allowance and Group Relief
The post-2017 carried-forward loss restriction, the group deductions allowance and allocation statement, Part 5 v Part 5A relief, change in ownership and terminal losses.
Read guide →Schedule 24 FA 2007: Penalty Framework Analysis
Detailed analysis of the Sch 24 inaccuracy penalty regime, behaviour categories, PLR calculation, prompted and unprompted disclosure, and mitigation strategy.
Read guide →VAT Best Judgment Assessments: Standard of Proof & Appeal
Van Boeckel, Pegasus Birds CA and the dual burden at the FTT. Challenging HMRC’s methodology and quantum in VAT best judgment assessment appeals.
Read guide →Capital Gains Tax Investigations: Practitioner Guide
Investigation triggers, HMRC’s Land Registry and CRS data feeds, s.29 TMA 1970 discovery time limits, reliefs HMRC overlooks, the 30-day reporting regime and penalty exposure for undeclared gains.
Read guide →The Meaning of “Deliberate” Behaviour in HMRC Penalties
The subjective test analysed, Tooth, Auxilium, Campbell, CPR Commercials on blind-eye knowledge and the fresh FTT decision in Outram [2026]. Resisting the 20-year window and higher penalty bands.
Read guide →Burden of Proof in HMRC Penalty Appeals: Sintra Global [2025]
The Court of Appeal’s December 2025 ruling on the split burden of proof where a taxpayer challenges the underlying tax liability as a penalty defence, with the Article 6 ECHR dimension and PLN/DLN implications.
Read guide →The VAT Business Test: Economic Activity After Wakefield College
The two-stage economic activity test from Wakefield College, with Longridge, Gemeente Borsele and Babylon Farm. For VAT registration, deregistration and input tax recovery disputes.
Read guide →Reasonable Excuse & Special Circumstances in HMRC Penalties
The Perrin four-stage test, Clean Car, Steptoe on insufficiency of funds and the special reduction power, defeating and mitigating late-filing, late-payment and failure-to-notify penalties.
Read guide →Overdrawn Director’s Loan Accounts in Liquidation
The s455 charge, liquidator recovery under s212 IA 1986, unlawful dividends (Toone v Robbins), the no set-off rule (Manson v Smith), and limitation after Burnden Holdings v Fielding.
Read guide →Late Appeals to the Tax Tribunal: The Martland Test
The three-stage Martland test for late appeals, Katib on adviser failures and the Court of Appeal’s January 2026 ruling in HMRC v Medpro Healthcare. Getting a missed 30-day appeal admitted.
Read guide →VAT Registration Disputes: Effective Date & Backdating
Effective date of registration, the no-backdating rule (Inspired by Service), compulsory registration and TOGC (Young), and Schedule 41 failure-to-notify penalties.
Read guide →Personal Liability Notices for Company Penalties (Para 19 Sch 24)
When HMRC can make a director personally liable for a company’s deliberate-inaccuracy penalty, the attribution and apportionment tests, burden of proof and defences, with Jason Andrew.
Read guide →The Kittel Principle: MTIC Input Tax Denial & PLN Defence
The Kittel knew-or-should-have-known test, MTIC supply chain fraud, due-diligence defence, and why “should have known” does not justify a deliberate-inaccuracy PLN, Bachra [2023] UKFTT 91.
Read guide →Suppressed Sales Investigations: HMRC Methodology & Best Judgment
Covert observation visits, Z-reading analysis, purchase testing and bank analysis, how HMRC builds a cash-business suppression case, with 3KH Ltd [2025] UKFTT 748. Challenging quantum and deliberateness.
Read guide →HMRC as Preferential Creditor in Insolvency: Post-December 2020
The Finance Act 2020 restoration of Crown preference analysed, which debts are preferential, the revised priority waterfall, impact on floating charge holders, CVAs, administrations and director duties.
Read guide →Financial Institution Notices & HMRC’s Five-Type Information Notice Framework
The five types of Schedule 36 notice compared, taxpayer, third-party, Financial Institution Notice (FA 2021), identity-unknown and identification notices, with approval requirements, appeal rights and FA 2024 changes.
Read guide →Penalty Suspension Under Schedule 24 FA 2007: HMRC’s Discretion & How to Challenge Refusal
When HMRC must consider suspension, what conditions it must attach, the FTT’s judicial-review standard of review, and how to challenge a refusal to suspend a careless-inaccuracy penalty.
Read guide →HMRC Enquiry Closure Notices: Compelling HMRC to Close Under s28A TMA 1970
How to force HMRC to issue a closure notice, the s28A application, what constitutes “reasonable grounds” for delay, partial closure notices and FTT procedure. The burden falls on HMRC, not the taxpayer.
Read guide →Accelerated Payment Notices & Follower Notices: Finance Act 2014 Regime
APNs require payment of disputed tax before the appeal is decided, DOTAS conditions, the 90-day representations window, judicial review limits after R (Rowe) [2017] EWCA Civ 2105, penalties and repayment on success.
Read guide →HMRC Offshore Assessment Time Limits: Extended 12 & 20-Year Windows
12 years for careless offshore behaviour, 20 for deliberate, how FA 2015 Sch 21 extended the windows, the CRS data revolution, Requirement to Correct penalties and territory-based penalty categories.
Read guide →IVAs with HMRC as Creditor: Tax Debt, Voting Rights & Prohibited Terms
HMRC’s IVA voting policy, the 25% blocking stake, PAYE trust claims, Finance Act 2020 Crown preference, prohibited modifications under Sch 4A IA 1986 and what to do when HMRC vetoes the arrangement.
Read guide →Judicial Review of HMRC Decisions: Grounds, Legitimate Expectation & Procedure
When and how to challenge HMRC by judicial review, illegality, irrationality, procedural unfairness and legitimate expectation. Preston, Unilever and the CPR Part 54 procedure for tax practitioners.
Read guide →Shadow Directors and HMRC: Personal Liability, Tax Debts & Holland v HMRC
The s251 shadow director test, de facto directors, the Supreme Court’s analysis in Holland v HMRC [2010] UKSC 51 on corporate director structures, PLN exposure, s212 misfeasance and CDDA disqualification.
Read guide →HMRC Statutory Demands & Bankruptcy Petitions: Setting Aside, Annulment & Defences
The 18-day window to set aside, genuine dispute grounds after Re A Debtor, opposing a petition during a live FTT appeal, and annulment under s282 IA 1986 where a bankruptcy order is made on a disputed assessment.
Read guide →Marketed Tax Avoidance Schemes: Section 36 Extended Time Limits & the Deliberate Conduct Test
When can HMRC use the 20-year discovery assessment window for marketed scheme participants? The s36(1A)(a) TMA 1970 deliberate conduct test, blind-eye knowledge and the professional advice reliance defence, anchored on Outram v HMRC [2026] UKFTT 248.
Read guide →Creditors’ Proofs of Debt in Liquidation: HMRC Claims, Admission & Challenge
How HMRC lodges and quantifies its tax claims in liquidation, the admission and rejection process under IR 2016, rule 14.8 challenge procedure and the procedural lessons from Re Alba Insulation [2026] EWHC 832.
Read guide →Section 236 Insolvency Act 1986: Office Holder Examinations, Director Exposure & Legal Defences
The office holder’s power to compel private examinations from directors, shadow directors and banks under s236 IA 1986: scope of orders, court discretion, legal professional privilege, self-incrimination and interaction with parallel HMRC investigations.
Read guide →Data Subject Access Requests Against HMRC: The Crime & Taxation Exemption
The DPA 2018 Sch 2 crime and taxation exemptions in full, the prejudice test, Controller A/B mechanics, the blanket-exemption prohibition in Gurieva and Dawson-Damer, and LPP pitfalls including Prudential and Kerman v Akhmedova.
Read guide →Freedom of Information Requests to HMRC: Strategic Use in Tax Disputes
Why s.44 FOIA and the CRCA 2005 confidentiality duty block identifiable-taxpayer requests, what FOI can still obtain, the s.30/31/35/36/42 qualified exemptions, and tactical use alongside DSARs in tax disputes.
Read guide →Schedule 55 Late Filing Penalties: The Notice-to-File Defence
Donaldson v HMRC and the fresh Wals v HMRC voluntary-return win: why a Schedule 55 penalty cannot stand without a valid s8 TMA notice to file, and how s12D TMA 1970 limits the argument.
Read guide →The Edwards v Bairstow Test: Appealing Findings of Fact from the FTT
The perversity and misdirection limbs, why most appeals fail, and the fresh January 2026 Upper Tribunal application in Mark Glenn Ltd v HMRC on inadequate reasoning versus a perverse conclusion.
Read guide →Relief from Sanctions in Tax Tribunal Proceedings: The Denton/BPP Test
BPP Holdings v HMRC and the Supreme Court's unanimous debarring of HMRC itself: how the Denton three-stage test governs missed directions, unless orders and strike-out for both sides.
Read guide →The Ramsay Principle & Purposive Construction
Not an anti-avoidance rule but an approach to statutory interpretation. From WT Ramsay and Furniss v Dawson to BMBF v Mawson, UBS AG and Hurstwood, and where prescriptive drafting defeats it.
Read guide →VAT Abuse of Rights: Halifax & TOGC Disputes
The two-limb Halifax test, redefinition rather than denial, Weald Leasing, Part Service and Pendragon: plus the transfer of a going concern conditions and where they fail.
Read guide →Annulling a Bankruptcy Order Founded on an HMRC Tax Debt
Annulment removes the bankruptcy; discharge removes the debts. The s282(1)(a), and (b) grounds, the s261 IVA route, the office-holder’s report, and why the insolvency court will not reopen the tax.
Read guide →Antecedent Transactions: s238, s239 & s423 and HMRC
Undervalues, preferences and transactions defrauding creditors where an HMRC liability is coming. MC Bacon on the desire to prefer, Sequana on lawful dividends, and why s423 needs no insolvency at all.
Read guide →Litigation Privilege in Internal Investigations Before HMRC Disclosure
SFO v ENRC [2018] EWCA Civ 2006 and the reasonable contemplation of adversarial litigation test, why an internal investigation report is not automatically privileged, and structuring investigations to preserve the claim.
Read guide →Limitation Periods for Recovering Overpaid Tax: Test Claimants in FII
Test Claimants in the FII Group Litigation v HMRC [2020] UKSC 47 on s32(1)(c) LA 1980 discoverability, contrasted with Canada Square v Potter [2023] UKSC 41, for restitution claims against HMRC.
Read guide →Piercing the Corporate Veil in HMRC Disputes: Prest v Petrodel
The evasion/concealment distinction from Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd [2013] UKSC 34, why HMRC rarely succeeds on true veil-piercing, and the resulting-trust and attribution routes it uses instead.
Read guide →Loan Relationships: HMRC Challenges to Corporate Interest Deductions
The unallowable purpose rule under CTA 2009 ss441–442, main purpose and just-and-reasonable apportionment, BlackRock HoldCo 5, Kwik-Fit and JTI Acquisition, and the June 2025 nudge letters on intra-group financing.
Read guide →Company Administration & Pre-Pack Sales: HMRC’s Position
HMRC as secondary preferential creditor, Regulation 84 connected-party sale safeguards, SIP 16 disclosure, and the 2026 joint plan with Companies House and the Insolvency Service to tackle phoenixism.
Read guide →VAT Option to Tax: Disapplication & the Anti-Avoidance Test
The VAT1614A 30-day notification trap, when a connected-party occupation and financing arrangement automatically disapplies the option, and why disapplication suspends rather than revokes it.
Read guide →Section 75 CCA 1974: Connected Lender Liability Claims Explained
The conditions, exclusions, the four-party payment trap (Steiner), the “debtor” problem (Cooper), and s.75A second-in-line liability for claims against a card issuer or connected lender.
Read guide →Section 56 CCA 1974: Antecedent Negotiations & Deemed Agency Explained
How a dealer’s misrepresentation binds the creditor as deemed principal, rescission of both the supply and credit agreements (Ingate, Whitfield), and the broker-for-whom trap after Plevin.
Read guide →The Merged R&D Scheme & ERIS: Rates, Eligibility & HMRC Compliance
The single merged expenditure credit and Enhanced R&D Intensive Support for periods from 1 April 2024, the 30% intensity threshold, and where HMRC compliance risk sits.
Read guide →Salaried Members Rules for LLPs: The BlueCrest Supreme Court Decision
What Condition A and Condition B now require after HMRC v BlueCrest [2026] UKSC 18, and why informal or de facto influence no longer satisfies Condition B.
Read guide →Excise Duty Assessments, Seizure & Restoration
Liability attaches to whoever is holding the goods. The two tracks, the Jones deeming trap that kills the personal use argument, Schedule 41 penalties and approvals.
Read guide →When HMRC Comes After the Adviser
Five routes to adviser exposure: Schedule 38 conduct notices and file access, enabler penalties, POTAS, money laundering supervision and negligence. Only one needs dishonesty.
Read guide →Part 26A Restructuring Plans & HMRC
Cross-class cram down where HMRC dissents. The two statutory conditions, the court’s discretion, and the lessons from Houst, Nasmyth, GAS and Prezzo.
Read guide →Employer Compliance Reviews: PAYE, Benefits & NMW
Employment tax errors are never one-off. Grossing up, the expenses and status hotspots, National Minimum Wage exposure, and how to challenge HMRC’s extrapolation.
Read guide →Partnership Enquiries & Partnership Statements
One partner runs the appeal and every partner is bound by it. The s12AC deeming provision, protecting an individual partner, and the LLP overlay.
Read guide →After the Bankruptcy Order: Income, Restrictions & the Home
Discharge at twelve months ends nothing. Income payments orders run three years, restrictions up to fifteen, and the s283A three-year rule governs the family home.
Read guide →VAT Partial Exemption & the Capital Goods Scheme
Attribution, the standard method and override, de minimis and special methods, plus the CGS item nobody recorded that surfaces years later.
Read guide →Transfer Pricing & Diverted Profits Enquiries
The argument is about price, not whether the transaction happened. The arm’s length framework, the DPT pay-first design, and obtaining corresponding relief.
Read guide →Validation Orders & Section 127
A winding up commences on presentation of the petition, so every disposition after it is void. Why the bank freezes the account and what a validation order fixes.
Read guide →Need expert advice on a live HMRC matter?
Our specialist team includes former HMRC investigators. We advise accountants, solicitors and insolvency practitioners on complex tax investigation and dispute matters.