A taxpayer is entitled to rely upon a statement made in a formal HMRC publication unless and until the statement was revoked, withdrawn or altered with reasonable notice to all relevant taxpayers.  This applies even if a tax inspector had expressed a contrary view.  This matter concerned the application of concessionary treatment for seafarer’s earning deduction relief.

This decision appears to contradict the Supreme Court’s finding in the Gaines-Cooper residence case.   The full report from the England & Wales High Court administrative division  can be found here.

Orsman v Revenue & Customs [2012] UKFTT 227 (TC)

HMRC cannot introduce an additional argument in its statement of case to a tribunal that it had not included in its closure notice.   A “closure notice” is usually a letter issued by HMRC to the customer that its enquiry has ended.  The purpose of the “statement of case” is also to tell the customer what HMRC’s case is and is submitted to the tax tribunal.  

This matter concerned a Stamp Duty Land Tax return. 

The full decision of the First-tier Tax Tribunal can be found here.