Peter Vaines wonders whether the meaning of “discovery” is too wide
If HMRC wish to raise an assessment beyond the enquiry window they must first make a discovery. That means the tax officer has to discover that:
- there are income and gains which ought to be assessed;
- an assessment to tax has become insufficient; or
- a relief which had been given has become excessive.
In these circumstances, Taxes Management Act 1970(TMA 1970), s 29 allows HMRC to raise a discovery assessment—providing certain other conditions are satisfied.
We know from Charlton (and many other authorities) that a discovery means that it has newly appeared to an officer that there is an insufficiency in an assessment. A change of view, a change of opinion or the correction of an oversight is a discovery for this purpose. It can also include a discovery that the law had been wrongly applied or that the officer had made a mistake about the law.
The meaning of “discovery” is therefore extremely wide. However, it must mean something. What s 29 cannot mean is that an assessment can be issued
