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Did the appellant under-declare the output tax on sales of fuel and was the assessment made to best judgement?

By Andrew Needham, May 2020

Summary 

This was an appeal against assessments made for the periods 08/15 to 10/17 totalling £686,054. The assessments were in respect of under-declared fuel sales. 

Background 

The appellant was a service station and argued that it returns were accurate and the assessments were baseless.  The appellant’s accountants had prepared their VAT returns based on information supplied to them. 

The appellant maintained that HMRC had simply extrapolated figures from an invigilation by HMRC of a constant sale of 350 litres per hour Monday to Saturday and 175 litres per hour on Sunday did not reflect the ebb and flow of trade. When HMRC had examined the recording of sales at the pumps they had found the sales were accurately reflected in the sales at the tills. 

 The appellant claimed that if HMRC’s calculation of under declared fuel sales at 60% was correct,

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