Recep Acar v The Commissioners for HMRC

Decision date: 26 February 2024

Neutral citation: [2024] UKFTT 182 (TC)

Overall AI summary confidence: high

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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 concerned an out-of-time challenge by Mr Acar to HMRC’s VAT assessments and a Schedule 41 penalty; the First-tier Tribunal applied the Denton/Martland three-stage approach and refused permission to bring the appeal out of time. The Tribunal found the delay (about 32 months beyond the statutory limit, or c.2.5 years even allowing HMRC’s Covid extension) to be very serious, that no adequate explanation or evidential basis for the substantive appeal was provided, and dismissed the application. The appellant retains the right to seek permission to appeal the Tribunal’s preliminary decision under Rule 39 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: high

Where an appeal is substantially out of time and the appellant provides no adequate explanation for the delay and no credible evidential basis for the substantive challenge, the FTT will refuse permission to bring the appeal out of time applying the Denton/Martland three-stage approach.

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 observed that the Covid-19 pandemic, and general practical disruption, does not by itself justify relaxing statutory time limits without persuasive evidence; evidence that the Tribunal continued to operate electronically during lockdown undermined an unsupported claim that online access was impossible.

Warning

- The chunk contains extensive repetition of the same material; care was taken to avoid repeating duplicated passages.

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