Constitutional not financial imperatives should dictate the attitudes of judges in tax disputes, say Jonathan Levy & Daniel Hemming
The Treasury and HMRC are engaged in a concerted attempt to close the “tax gap”. Politicians speak daily of the evils of tax avoidance and tax evasion (the terms tend to be used interchangeably) and the necessity for everyone to pay their “fair share” of tax, while HMRC has made numerous public pronouncements about “acceptable” and “unacceptable” tax avoidance. It is against this backdrop and during a period of economic austerity that the tribunals and the higher courts are being asked to determine tax disputes.
What are a judge’s duties?
Given that the UK does not have a written constitution, there is no single, codified source which determines the powers, duties and responsibilities of our judges. Instead they are derived from an amalgam of statute and often very old common law.
The Judges’ Council (chaired by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge) publishes the Guide to Judicial Conduct (the guide), which is intended “to offer assistance to judges on issues rather than prescribe a
