Responding to the consultation on Court and Tribunal fees, the NI Tax Committee voices its opposition to proposals which would introduce fees for tax Tribunal appeals for the first time. The Committee cites various reasons in its submission including the poor recent performance of HMRC in the area of service standards.

Key points of the submission also include:-

• The consultation document proposals are expected to generate a cost recovery percentage of around 26 per cent. It is not clear whether/how that cost saving will directly benefit appeal applicants, for example by speeding up the Tribunal process.
• Upfront fees should not be imposed and should only be levied, after the case has been heard, on the basis of “loser pays”.
• If fees are to be charged, a deminimis exemption should be included for cases involving smaller amounts of tax. This will enable cases of principle to still be taken to Tribunal, despite smaller amounts being involved.

You can read the submission here.

Overall, the Committee is concerned that the proposals will simply make justice less accessible to those who cannot afford it at a time when HMRC is not performing particularly strongly in terms of its own customer service standards. Quite often a taxpayer will resort to a formal appeal simply because HMRC is delaying matters and the taxpayer has exhausted all other avenues available.