Paul Joseph Bryan v The Commissioners for HMRC

Facts

The appellant, Paul Joseph Bryan, is a sole practitioner solicitor whose self-assessment returns for the years ended 5 April 2017 and 5 April 2018 were the subject of HMRC enquiries. He applied to the First-tier Tribunal under section 28A of the Taxes Management Act 1970 for a direction requiring HMRC to issue closure notices. This was the fourth such application in relation to the same enquiries; the previous three had all been refused, most recently in an unpublished decision of Tribunal Judge Popplewell following a hearing on 27 November 2024 and released on 17 December 2024 ("the Third decision"), which identified specific evidential deficiencies concerning the interaction between the client account and the office account, the nature and composition of disbursements, the methodology for calculating work in progress, and anomalies in claimed expenses. That decision was not appealed. HMRC applied to strike out the present application under Rule 8(3)(c) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Tax Chamber) Rules 2009 on the ground that it had no reasonable prospect of success, relying on the absence of any material change since the Third decision and the appellant's continued refusal to provide client account bank statements. The appellant maintained that he had supplied all requested material and that the enquiry, running for nearly seven years, had become an "open ended fishing expedition". The application was determined on the papers.