Nicholas Dounetas v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 24 November 2025
Neutral citation: [2025] UKFTT 1416 (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 case concerns an application for permission to appeal out of time against a 19 December 2023 HMRC closure notice that treated income as PAYE/IR35, increasing tax liability. The Tribunal applied the three-stage test for late appeals, found the delay (five-plus months to appeal to HMRC and further delay to the Tribunal) serious with no good reason shown, and found the substantive merits did not carry significant weight because the engager had treated the appellant as a deemed employee and deducted PAYE/NI. Permission to appeal late was refused.
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
The Tribunal treated attempts to contact HMRC by telephone and the absence of agent authorisation on HMRC’s file as insufficient to establish a good reason for failing to make the required written appeal; failures by an appellant’s adviser are generally attributed to the appellant when assessing late appeal applications. Where delay is lengthy and the substantive case lacks significant merit, permission to appeal out of time should be refused.
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 admission of late HMRC documents can be appropriate if they materially assist in explaining delay, and that even if wider public-interest factors were weighed differently, the combination of long delay and weak merits would likely produce the same refusal outcome.