The First-tier Tribunal has granted permission for Animal Comfort Ltd to bring late appeals against HMRC decisions concerning customs duty on imported steel pipes. Following a reclassification of the goods, the company maintained that a tariff quota would have been available to reduce the duty to nil. HMRC, however, refused its subsequent application for remission of the duty on the basis that the relevant quota had closed. The Tribunal considered whether the company could appeal both the original liability decision and the refusal of remission, notwithstanding the expiry of the statutory time limits.

The first issue for the Tribunal to determine was whether it could hear the late appeal applications before hardship had been resolved. In line with other decisions of the FTT, the Tribunal held that it could.

The next issue that arose was around the construction of the appeal notice, which was ambiguous as to the decisions it was appealing. The Tribunal held that the appeal notice did not as a matter of construction cover the original liability decision but granted the company’s application to amend the appeal notice so that it did.

Applying the principles in Martland v HMRC [2018] UKUT 178 (TCC), the Tribunal then granted permission for both the late appeal against the liability decision and the late appeal against the refusal of remission. The Tribunal accepted that the company had reasonably pursued the remission procedure following HMRC’s advice and had subsequently believed that its existing notice of appeal covered the liability decision. The Tribunal also considered that a factor in the company’s favour was the prima facie strength of the company’s appeal against the original liability notice on the basis that the notice was invalid as made by HMRC outside the three-year period prescribed by paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 6 to the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018. That is an issue that will be fully tested in due course.

Joshua Stevens appeared for the taxpayer. You can read the judgment here.

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