Rediscovery

Sean Kelly v. HMRC [2021] is an interesting case in which assessments were issued in 2016 on the basis of a discovery under TMA 1970 s. 29(1), and subsequently withdrawn by HMRC and new assessments issued in 2017 relying on the same discovery.  The FTT held that the assessments in 2017 cannot have been made on the basis of the original discovery because that discovery formed the basis of the assessments made in 2016 which had been withdrawn.  As the Tribunal Judge said: ‘The threshold for a discovery to arise is low’ but it is not so low that HMRC was able to surmount it in this case.