BPP Holdings Ltd and others v HMRC: Securing administrative justice in tax tribunals

Abstract

Introduction: BPP Holdings Ltd and others v HMRC (BPP Holdings Ltd) marks a useful contribution by the Supreme Court (SC) on tribunal procedure. The underlying dispute related to VAT, but the substantive issues were not relevant here. The key question for the SC in this case was whether an order issued by the tax chamber of the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) debarring HMRC from defending an appeal was an order the FTT was entitled to make. This central question provided the SC with the opportunity to generate further guidance on a number of related matters and to provide clarity as to whether HMRC can benefit from preferential treatment in comparison to other parties in tax proceedings before the FTT. The issues the case-note discusses are the following: (i) the SC’s guidance on how tribunals should go about importing procedural standards from the civil courts system, namely that any standards should be imported with nuance, taking into account the differences between a tax tribunal and the ordinary court system; (ii) its unequivocal refusal to endorse an approach that would allow for the preferential treatment of HMRC or other public bodies and state agencies appearing before tribunals; (iii) its critique of the existing sanctions system for litigants who do not comply with time limits and cause delays that may prejudice the other parties to the dispute: (iv) the appropriate standard of review to be applied when attempting to determine whether the impugned decision was one that the decision-maker was entitled to make.