The First-tier Tribunal refused to approve HMRC’s application for a third-party information notice to be given to the taxpayer’ auditors, as the statutory exclusion from auditors’ obligations to deliver documents applied notwithstanding that the auditors were also the taxpayers’ agents for the preparation and submission of corporation tax returns.

A number of UK resident companies (the ‘taxpayers’) were members of a group of companies. For a particular accounting period, the auditor (an LLP) delivered a qualified audit opinion. As well as acting as the taxpayers’ auditor, the auditor also prepared and submitted the taxpayers’ corporation tax returns to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as the taxpayers’ agent.

HMRC was concerned by the qualified audit opinion, reasoning that the taxpayers’ corporation tax liability depended on figures from their accounts and so if figures in the accounts were incorrect,