HMRC v Root2 Tax Ltd

In HMRC v Root2 Tax Ltd [2022] UKUT 353 (TCC) (20 December 2022) the Upper Tribunal (UT) dismissed HMRC’s appeal against the FTT’s decision rejecting their application for a penalty for failure by a promoter to notify arrangements under DOTAS. The UT confirmed that the application was made outside the six-year time limit. 

In a decision issued in 2017 the FTT held that a scheme known as the ‘Alchemy scheme’ constituted notifiable arrangements within the DOTAS rules and that Root2 was a promoter of it. Following this decision in 2019 HMRC applied to the FTT for a penalty under TMA 1970 s 98C to be charged on Root2 for failure to notify the arrangements to HMRC. The company contested the application on the grounds that the application was out of time. The application had to be made within six years after...