Patrick Brown v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 10 October 2025
Neutral citation: [2025] UKFTT 1226 (TC)
Overall AI summary confidence: high
Short overview
This short overview is intended to summarise the case, issues and outcome so far as they are supported by the judgment.
AI confidence in this short overview: high
This appeal challenged a closure notice assessing £43,899 as additional employment income arising from payments by offshore employer AML to an offshore trust. The First-tier Tribunal found those payments were remuneration redirected by arrangement or acquiescence and taxable when paid to the trust, rejected the fair-trial objection (no shown prejudice from delay), and struck out the appeal as having no realistic prospect of success under Rule 8(3)(c). The tribunal also held it lacked jurisdiction to review HMRC's choice to tax the employee rather than the employer.
Ratio decidendi
This summary is intended to identify the ratio decidendi, meaning the legal reasons for deciding and the binding part of the decision.
AI confidence in this ratio decidendi summary: high
Payments made by an employer to a third party (a trust) pursuant to arrangements which the employee arranged or acquiesced in can constitute redirected earnings and be taxable as employment income at the point those payments are made to the third party; an appeal that is legally unsustainable and unlikely to be altered by further evidence may be struck out under Rule 8(3)(c).
Obiter dicta
This summary is intended to identify obiter dicta, meaning observations made by the way that were not necessary to deciding the case and are not binding.
AI confidence in this obiter dicta summary: medium
The tribunal indicated that inordinate or inexcusable delay by HMRC, without specific evidence of prejudice to the taxpayer’s ability to prosecute the appeal, will not by itself render a fair trial impossible; and complaints about HMRC’s conduct or reliance on professional advisers generally fall outside the tribunal’s remit and should be pursued by other complaint or remedy routes.
Warning
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