Thomas James Blanche v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Decision date: 8 March 2011
Neutral citation: [2011] UKFTT 164 (TC)
Overall AI summary confidence: medium
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: medium
This case concerns whether an employer (Driven) took reasonable care under reg 72 when HMRC coding notices applied in payroll software were later overwritten by a franchisor "master" system, producing under-deduction of PAYE. The First-tier Tribunal found that Driven had acted in good faith and, given the foreseeable interaction between linked systems and contemporaneous evidence that the coding had been applied in payroll software, had taken reasonable care. The tribunal dismissed Mr Blanche's appeal and upheld HMRC's direction relieving Driven and making Mr Blanche liable for the unpaid tax of £2,783.95.
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: medium
Where an employer receives and applies an HMRC coding notice in its payroll software but a linked master system subsequently overwrites that coding through an interaction of systems, the employer may nevertheless be found to have taken reasonable care if the overwrite arose from a genuine, foreseeable systems/process interaction and the employer made an honest error in good faith supported by contemporaneous evidence (eg, successful application entries and explanations of integrated system functioning).
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: low
The judgment contains observations about the practical significance of modern linked payroll/invoicing systems and the attendant risk that multiple integrated systems must be updated concurrently; admissions by a franchisor or software provider that an event "looks like a genuine mistake" were noted as persuasive factual material though not framed as decisive legal rules.