Get Onbord Limited (in liquidation) v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 9 July 2024
Neutral citation: [2024] UKFTT 617 (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
Get Onbord Limited (in liquidation) appealed HMRC's refusal of an R&D tax credit for an AI-enabled KYC onboarding system. The Tribunal held the joint liquidators could endorse and continue the appeal so the hearing would stand, and on the merits found on the balance of probabilities that the project met the BEIS Guidelines for R&D (it addressed technological uncertainties and achieved an advance beyond routine adaptation), allowing the appeal. Parties may seek permission to appeal within 56 days.
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 concluded that a liquidator’s statutory powers under Schedule 4 of the Insolvency Act 1986 can include endorsing and continuing litigation commenced by a director, permitting the original hearing to stand where fairness and the overriding objective support that outcome. On the substantive R&D point, the Tribunal applied the BEIS Guidelines and found that where a claimant proves a defined project addressing technological/system uncertainties and resulting in an advance in overall knowledge or capability, the claim can succeed; once the claimant adduces sufficient evidence of an overall advance, the evidential burden shifts to HMRC to show the work was merely routine.
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 recommended early, consolidated scientific and technical disclosure from both parties in R&D disputes to streamline proceedings and observed that the practical risk of opportunistic retrospective authorisations is low in the circumstances described.