Richard Bucknell v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 23 January 2026
Neutral citation: [2026] UKFTT 155 (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 appeal concerned HMRC discovery assessments, closure notices and a penalty arising from undeclared dividends, an overdrawn director's loan account and a cheap loan benefit for tax years 2018/19–2021/22. The Tribunal upheld HMRC's discovery assessment and the full closure notices, increased assessments to include the High Income Child Benefit Charge where appropriate, and upheld the penalties; it rejected the appellant's late, unparticularised challenges and the claimed December 2018 share transfer. Appeals were dismissed.
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
The Tribunal treated a s29 TMA 1970 discovery assessment as valid where an officer, having compared the taxpayer's self-assessment with company records, bank records and accounting materials, reasonably concluded there was an insufficiency of tax; and it affirmed that a tribunal may properly refuse to entertain late, unparticularised challenges to HMRC's underlying calculations where the taxpayer has failed to produce contemporaneous evidence or particulars in advance of the hearing.
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 commented that allowing an ambush at hearing by raising extensive historic accounting disputes without prior particulars would be procedurally unfair, and observed that reliance on accountants or asserted dyslexia does not relieve a taxpayer of the responsibility to ensure returns are complete and accurate.