Oral Healthcare Limited v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 4 April 2023
Neutral citation: [2023] UKFTT 357 (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
Oral Healthcare Ltd appealed HMRC’s assessment recovering CJRS grants, challenging the ineligibility of ten employees because their payment-of-earnings were not included in RTI FPS files by the statutory cut-off dates. The Tribunal found the statutory RTI cut-offs (principally 19 March 2020 and for later periods 31 October 2020) were not met and that there is no provision to extend eligibility for administrative or technical filing difficulties. The appeal was dismissed and the assessment was varied to £35,739.64.
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
Eligibility for CJRS payments depends on strict compliance with the Directions and Schedule requirement that an employee’s payment-of-earnings be shown in an RTI FPS by the relevant CJRS day; administrative or technical difficulties in filing RTI do not create entitlement where that statutory condition was not met.
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: high
The Tribunal observed that the Directions’ absolute cut-off prevented both abuse and also excluded employers who took on staff in March 2020 or who experienced filing problems, and noted the tribunal’s role is to apply the statute rather than address fairness or the “spirit” of the scheme.