GEORGE H DRAFFANSARAH & Ors v Revenue & Customs (PROCEDURE - Sch 36 Notices)

PROCEDURE - Sch 36 Notices - dispute as to whether certain documents subject to legal privilege - applications for Tribunal to decide dispute under Information Notice: Resolution of Disputes as to Privileged Communications Regulations 2009 - whether Applicants failed to comply with time limits in those Regulations - if so, whether Tribunal had jurisdiction to decide as a separate hearing - held, no compliance with the statutory time limits; no jurisdiction to decide in a separate hearing; instead directions issued for dispute to be decided as part of substantive appeals

The hearing took place on by video.� A face to face hearing was not held because it had been listed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Prior notice of the hearing had been published on the gov.uk website, with information about how representatives of the media or members of the public could apply to join the hearing remotely in order to observe the proceedings.� The hearing was therefore held in public.

             In 2002, the Applicants entered into certain tax planning arrangements known as the Mark II Flip Flop (�the Arrangements�). On 21 November 2019, HM Revenue & Customs (�HMRC�) issued the Applicants with Information Notices (�Notices�) under Finance Act 2008, Sch 36 (�Sch 36�).� Each Notices contained a list of items which referred to one or more documents (respectively, the �Items� and the �Required Documents�).�

             In the view of the Applicants, some of the Required Documents are privileged and thus fall within Sch 36, para 23 (�the LPP Documents�). �They provided an outline description to HMRC, and on the basis of that description, HMRC did not agree that the LPP Documents were privileged.