In 2001 the Lord Chancellor’s Department (now the
Department for Constitutional Affairs) instituted a review and
reform of the procedural rules that apply to civil litigation in
county courts, the High Court and to the Court of Appeal. The
driving force behind this process was Lord Woolf and the reforms
are known as the Woolf reforms.
One of the major aims of the Woolf reforms is to speed up
litigation generally. There are no changes in the processes and
time limits for getting tax appeals to the High Court but the new
rules shorten many of the time limits in the procedures once an
appeal to the High Court has begun, i.e. notice of appeal has been
lodged with the High Court. The new rules also require that certain
tasks to be undertaken by the parties to the appeal now have to be
carried out sooner rather than later.
If HMRC decides to appeal against a decision of the
Commissioners we must now complete a detailed form (the
Appellant’s notice) and lodge it in the High Court. The case
stated by the General Commissioners must be sent with the notice.
The notice must include the grounds of appeal and be accompanied by
the bundle of documents in support of the appeal. This must be done
within 30 days of receiving the signed case (see AH1565).
The skeleton argument in support of the appeal must be filed
with the Appellant’s notice or within 14 days of the filing
of that notice.
Where the taxpayer appeals to the High Court HMRC must now
complete another detailed form (a Respondent’s notice) within
14 days of the service on us of the Appellant’s notice. And
we must file our Respondent’s skeleton argument no later than
21 days after receiving the appellant’s skeleton argument.
This means that where we decide to appeal to the High Court
the Commissioners for HMRC’s Solicitor has very little time
in which to instruct Counsel, settle the grounds of appeal, prepare
bundles of supporting documents and draft and lodge the skeleton
argument. Similarly, where the taxpayer decides to appeal to the
High Court the time limit for doing all this is very tight.
It is therefore essential that there is no delay at any
stage.
If you are dissatisfied with the decision of the General
Commissioners on a point of law, or if you become aware that the
taxpayer has requested a stated case, you must inform the relevant
Head Office specialist
immediately (see AH1525).
You must also send the draft stated case, and subsequently
the signed case, to the specialist
immediately they are received (see AH1540, AH1545
and AH1560).
