Capital losses - Mansworth v Jelley: cases under enquiry- update May 2012
Further exchanges with HMRC have confirmed that the issue of letters in February and March are not being treated as ‘decision letters’, so they do not consider that the judicial review claims time limit runs from their issue.
Further to our previous alert at: http://www.tax.org.uk/tax-policy/newsdesk/2012/CL_MJ, following the letter issued by HMRC in February and responses from taxpayers indicating that they would continue to pursue claims for capital losses for disposals of option shares based on HMRC’s original guidance, the ICAEW reported that HMRC have responded in March (in some cases) with a further letter to taxpayers requesting information and evidence. There has been concern in the tax press that the February HMRC letter and subsequent letter sent out to taxpayers in March might constitute ‘decisions’ in individual cases for the purposes of judicial review. If these letters were to be properly regarded as decisions for judicial review purposes, the time limit for bringing a judicial review claim would be a maximum of three months from the date of the decision letter.
HMRC have confirmed to the CGT Liaison Group that they do not see the February or March letters as decision letters. HMRC say that decisions will be made in each case according to the individual circumstances. Therefore HMRC does not consider that the judicial review claims time limit runs from the issue of either of those letters.
Technical Team
15 May 2012
