HMRC was not entitled to make discovery assessments relating to a redundancy receipt, as the taxpayer’s self-assessment return was not submitted carelessly, and the relevance of Real Time Information data would be known to a hypothetical HMRC officer. 

On 23 November 2013, the appellant was made redundant by his former employer (Symantec). Symantec provided electronic payslips to employees, but following his redundancy, the appellant no longer had access to them.  

The appellant had always paid income tax under PAYE and had never been required by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to file a tax return. However, as he believed that too much tax had been deducted from his pay in the tax year 2013/14, he filed a tax return electronically on 21 March 2016. HMRC paid the appellant a tax refund of £14,043. <> <