Mehmet Gurbuz v Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs

Facts

The appellant, Mehmet Gurbuz, traded as "Deal Kebab and Pizza House", providing hot food from premises in high street, Deal, from 21 July 1999, the business having been taken over as a going concern from Mustafa Deniz, who had been registered for VAT. An inquiry visit was made in late 2003 by an officer from the Maidstone VAT office, at which registration and record-keeping requirements were discussed, and the Customs wrote to him on 14 November 2003 advising him about registration and about the requirement to record daily gross takings. Test purchases and observations were carried out on 10 February 2004 and 26 February 2004; on each day the officers recorded 63 purchases, while the till "Z" readings recorded 44 and 39 transactions respectively. At an arranged visit on 28 April 2004 the appellant was interviewed and his records examined, and the Customs concluded that 34% of his daily gross takings had been underdeclared. Applying that suppression rate to the monthly takings figures on a reducing scale back to July 1999, the Customs notified him by letter of 17 June 2004 that he was liable to be registered with effect from 1 November 2001, and that he was liable to a penalty. He was later notified of a penalty of £3,697 and, no return having been made, an assessment of £21,286 for the period from 1 November 2001 to 30 September 2004. A review upheld the decisions and he appealed to the tribunal.