Public law arguments could not be introduced in an appeal against a determination under the construction industry scheme regulations, but even if they could, HMRC did not depart from the process outlined in their guidance manual (or if they did, in a way that was conspicuously unfair).  

The appellant company (TOGL) was set up to carry out a one-off residential development project in Cheshire. As part of that project, TOGL paid various construction service providers (including Dreamspace). However, TOGL did not make deductions at source as required by the construction industry scheme (CIS) rules. In September 2018, TOGL’s accountant began to make enquiries with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about whether TOGL’s payments were within the CIS. HMRC asked the accountant to provide details of “the payments made from the start of the build up to the date of registration”. Subsequently, HMRC attempted for over a year to acquire enough