AH1540 - General Commissioners: Appeals to the High Court: Draft case demanded by Revenue received: report to Head Office

When the case has been drafted, the Clerk will send a copy of it to the party who requested it and to all other parties. The parties then have 56 days to make representations on the draft.

It is therefore important that you act IMMEDIATELY when you receive the draft case you have demanded to enable the 56 day limit to be complied with.

On receipt of the draft case make sure that all the documents relating to the appeal are placed in order, flagged and identified. This includes:

• a full note of the hearing, stating if any witnesses gave oral evidence before the Commissioners and giving their names, descriptions and who called them, and giving the names of the representatives who spoke for each party
• copies of the amendments to self-assessments, Revenue assessments, decisions on claims or other items which were the subject of the appeal hearing and the appeals which were considered by the Commissioners
• copy documents put in evidence
• statement of facts not in dispute
• your written brief and contentions (indicating if any part of the brief was not followed).

You should have a contemporaneous note made of any contentious hearing but if there is any additional information which is relevant, either to the hearing or to the draft case, include it in your report.

It will assist the specialist (and Commissioners for HMRC's Solicitor if the draft case is referred to him) if he can easily identify which assessments, amendments, claims etc were listed before the Commissioners, the amounts of those assessments etc and the figures in which you sought determination. It is the self-assessment etc in its original figures which should have been taken before the Commissioners and thus it is a copy of this which should be placed in the folder. If the original figures and the amount in which determination was obtained are not clearly set out in the draft case or if there is any error in them, explain the figures in your report. Also draw attention to any special features. For example, mention if assessments were made outside the normal time limit. Where possible, it is helpful if a copy of the notice showing the total tax payable following the Commissioners' decision is also placed in the folder.

Send the draft case, with your report and the documents, to the appropriate specialist IMMEDIATELY, preferably on the day of receipt. Because of the relatively short time limit for making representations on the draft, it is essential that no delays occur in the handling of it.

Include any observations you may have on the content of the draft and point out any inaccuracies. Do not write comments on the stated case itself and do not make any comment on the case to the Clerk or the taxpayer until you receive a reply from the specialist.

Always send the papers referred to above and the complete file when sending a draft case to the relevant specialist.

The relevant specialist will consider whether or not to continue with the appeal. Where the specialist considers that HMRC should proceed he will send the draft case to Commissioners for HMRC’s solicitor, with the background material.