Les Howard VAT Consultant Share this content Save content Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile. Advertisement Guide Sponsored How to prepare for Basis Period Reform Legitimate Expectation 22nd Jan 2018 Les Howard VAT Consultant Share this content Save content Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile. There is a balance to be found between HMRC’s responsibility to collect tax, and the duty to treat taxpayers fairly. This case is worth looking at esp para 43: At times, the Commissioners came close to characterising the duty to collect tax as a trump card which prevails over all other considerations (save, possibly, for those cases where extreme personal prejudice in the form of detrimental reliance can be made out). It is necessary to be clear about the nature and scope of this duty: the duty to collect tax is not a narrow duty which requires the Commissioners simply to enforce the statute, come what may. It is a broad duty, exercised by means of a wide managerial discretion, within which is embedded the obligation to treat taxpayers fairly. That means that in the pursuit of that duty, the public authority can be required to forgo tax which is due under the statute, if to do otherwise would cause such conspicuous unfairness as to constitute an abuse of the Commissioners' powers. http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2015/3261.html&query=(Hely-Hutchinson) Tags: HMRC Share this content Save content Leave a comment You might also be interested in HMRC & policy 19th Mar 2024 Loan charge: No data on ‘unwitting’ scheme users by Richard Hattersley Any Answers comment Icon 3 HMRC & policy 18th Mar 2024 No room for HMRC to manoeuvre in NHS parking case by Alex Spencer Guide Sponsored How to prepare for Basis Period Reform The R&D Community 13th Mar 2024 Free course for Merged R&D tax relief Scheme Advertisement Replies (0) Please login or register to join the discussion. There are currently no replies, be the first to post a reply.