Itinerant surgeon

Itinerant surgeon

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A surgeon runs a private practice from a proper office at his home.  Obviously he cannot operate on the kitchen table these days and uses three private hospitals locally.  HMRC are trying to disallow mileage from office to hospital despite the case seeming to me to be stronger than Horton or Mellor.  They say that these two were itinerant, i.e. went (or at least might have gone) to a different site each week, whereas my client uses the same three hospitals, and therefore these are his base.  The Inspector is threatening to close the enquiry with an assessment, i.e. force me to go to the Tribunal.  Not sure if he's bluffing as I can't see his argument.  Can anyone else?

Incidentally we have been careful to exclude mileage from home to NHS hospital where client has employment, so the tax at stake is not huge, and Inspector has not quibbled about the calculations.

If the worst comes to the worst, any recommendations for a good barrister/advocate as I would not be confident about taking the case myself as I've no experience at all.

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By The Innkeeper
24th Aug 2011 17:03

Might this help

Quite a few years ago we acted for a Doctor who was the on call Doctor for one of Her Majesty's Holiday Camps. Because he used to give instructions on treatment and take responsibility for the ill happy camper the travel from home to the Camp was allowed - inspite of this being an old Schedule E employment ( Camp Doctors are Office Holders by virtue of special legislation). There was a similar House of Lords case which I relied on but cannot remember its name. I believe I tracked this down from a book about The Taxation of Specialised Occupations. Hope this helps

BTW if you pm me I will give you the contact details of a good junior that we have used

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Replying to davidwinch:
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By PhilipJG
16th Jan 2013 20:37

Surgeon - base of operations

Hi

 

Just to let you know that 17 months later HMRC have given in.  As you advised we got Keith Gordon to advise, and he would have taken it to Tribunal, but we managed to win at the Independent Review stage.  So thanks for your useful recommendation.

 

Philip

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By sijolees
25th Aug 2011 13:20

HMRC Manuals

 

Business Income Manual at BIM37605 seems to support the Inspector's view. Seems a bit harsh but the court seems to have approved this stance.

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