HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued an information notice to the appellants (under FA 2008, Sch 36, para 1). The appellants claimed that items requested by the information notice were not in their ‘possession or power’, and that they were not required to produce those items (by virtue of Sch 36, para 18).
The appellants had established a remuneration trust. Their appeal against the information notice was on the basis that certain items in the information notice were not in their possession or power, because those items were held by the trustee of the remuneration trust.
The appellants had sent a letter requesting that the trustee provide and comment on the information and documents requested in the information notice. However, the trustee did not respond. Following a subsequent email by the appellants, the trustee replied by letter, asserting that the information requested was “highly sensitive and
