HMRC has backtracked on hundreds of Accelerated Payment Notices (APN) after admitting defeat following an application for Judicial Review. This affects the notices it  has issued to hundreds of taxpayers as a result of a Judicial Review lodged on their behalf.   This is not the first time that HMRC has undertaken a withdrawal of APNs that they had previously issued.

APNs were challenged on a number of grounds including the argument that the Employee Benefit Trust arrangements under consideration were not ‘notifiable’ to HMRC, under the DOTAS regime.  HMRC has now admitted that it did not have the right to issue the APNs in relation to these arrangements.

Shipleys Tax Planning partner, Shabeer Yousuf CTA, says “this case demonstrates, that a taxpayer in receipt of an APN should not automatically assume that HMRC has followed the correct processes and exercised its powers lawfully, the taxpayer should seek specialist advice.”