If an appellant indicates that he wishes to summon an officer of
the HMRC to appear and give evidence or to produce documents at an
appeal hearing you must consult Central Policy: Tax Administration
Policy, with all possible speed. Initial advice can be given by
telephone and if necessary Central Policy: Tax Administration
Policy, will ask for a report and to see the file. However, you
should try to ascertain the appellant's intentions in calling the
officer before seeking advice.
Generally, if a member of staff from the HMRC is called as a
witness by the appellant, or the respondent in a penalty appeal,
then it is the Departmental practice, to produce that person
without requirement to obtain a Witness Summons. However, in some
cases we have refused to produce witnesses who plainly could add
nothing useful.
If the appellant requires the attendance of a member of the
HMRC staff as a witness, that person is their witness and they are
only allowed to examine them in chief (see AH0851). This happened
in the case of
S Bensoor v Mrs J F Devine (SpC456). There are
special rules about treating witnesses as 'hostile' (see
AH0680).
