The tax tribunal has ruled that discovery assessments could not be reduced for working from home during lockdown and other expenses due to lack of evidence. What could the taxpayer have done differently?
HMRC discovered that Mr Opoku-Anokye (O) was liable for the high income child benefit charge, but had failed to submit tax returns for two years. Discovery assessments were raised to recover the amount, and these were the subject of the appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT). O wanted the tax assessed to be reduced for the following alleged reasons:
- He purchased a monitor and chair for homeworking during the pandemic.
- He paid to attend a conference that was necessary to maintain his professional standing and fulfil his job role.
- He made gift aid donations of £50 per month during both years.
- He incurred homeworking expenses for the period from July 2017 to June 2019 because his employer’s office was in Edinburgh and he was a home worker servicing clients based all around the UK.
- Homeworking expenses of £6 per week for the lockdown period as per HMRC’s expenses policy at the time without needing to provide additional evidence should be taken into account.
The FTT accepted the first two points for which O produced receipts. Rather strangely, O repeatedly referred to the burden on HMRC to validate or check the amounts he was claiming in regard to the other points. The FTT politely referred to this as “misguided” and confirmed that the burden is on O to show that HMRC’s assessments were wrong. The remaining expenses and gift aid relief were set aside due to the absence of any evidence that the claims could be made. Additionally, the homeworking expense dispensation introduced during lockdown didn’t apply to the years in question.
O could have saved some tax and time by providing HMRC with the necessary evidence it rightly requested, or taking tax advice at the earliest opportunity.
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