Parvaiz Akhtar v The Commissioners for HMRC

Facts

The applicant, Parvaiz Akhtar, was assessed to VAT by the Commissioners for His Majesty's Revenue and Customs for the periods 12/19 to 03/23 in the sum of £29,199.19. The assessments were best judgement assessments issued under s 73 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 in consequence of his failure to maintain sufficient records, HMRC having based their computations on the till data for September 2022. The First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber), in a decision released on 19 September 2025, found that the assessments had been made to best judgement and that the applicant had failed to discharge the burden of proof resting on him to establish that the quantum of the assessments was inaccurate. Central to the First-tier Tribunal's findings were the applicant's shifting explanations for the number of "no sales" recorded on his till, which it regarded as neither logical nor credible, and the absence of documentary evidence as to the proportion of sales or the margins achieved. The First-tier Tribunal refused permission to appeal in a decision released on 27 November 2025. The applicant renewed his application in the Upper Tribunal, where permission was refused on the papers, and he then applied for that refusal to be reconsidered at a hearing.