Thomas H Dyer v Commissioners of Customs and Excise

Facts

The appellant, Thomas H Dyer, carried on business as an insolvency practitioner at various addresses in and around Dundee, including premises at 10 Douglas Street, and also traded as a racehorse trainer. He was registered for VAT from 16 March 1993 until 30 August 1996, when he was de-registered following his own written request notifying the Commissioners that he had ceased trading. That request came shortly after a routine visit in May 1996 at which one of the Commissioners' officers had queried his VAT treatment of interim payments received for insolvency work. The Commissioners sought a meeting and access to his business records to resolve that query, his outstanding return for 1 June to 31 August 1996, and whether the de-registration had been correctly effected; the appellant refused, maintaining that Schedule 11, paragraph 7 of the VAT Act 1994 did not apply to an unregistered person. Penalties under section 69 of the Act followed, and his appeals against them were dismissed on 17 November 1999. In March 2000 the Commissioners purported to reinstate his former registration; that decision was accepted to be wrong and cancelled in May 2001. By letter dated 28 June 2001 they instead compulsorily registered him under a new number with effect from 1 October 1996, on the footing that turnover in the 12 months ending 31 August 1996 had exceeded the registration threshold. He appealed.