ANNEX 1:: MINOR CHANGES IN THE LAW MADE BY THE BILL This change has no effect for the amount of tax paid, who pays it or when. It affects (in principle but not in practice) only administrative matters.
Change 109: Transactions in securities: statement of case by tribunal for opinion of court: section 707 and Schedule 2Part 14 (transactions in securities: statement of case by tribunal for opinion of High Court or Court of Session)
This change affects the procedure on income tax appeals concerning transactions in securities by removing the requirement for the dissatisfied party to “declare his or their dissatisfaction” before requiring the tribunal to state a case for the opinion of the court.
Chapter 1 of Part 17 of ICTA (transactions in securities) has its own appeals procedure. This includes the option for the dissatisfied party to require an appeal which has been heard by the Special Commissioners to be re-heard by the special tribunal constituted under section 706 of ICTA.
Section 705A(1) and (2) of ICTA provide:
“(1)Immediately after the determination by the tribunal of an appeal re-heard by them under section 705 of this Act, the appellant or the Board, if dissatisfied with the determination as being erroneous in point of law, may declare his or their dissatisfaction to the tribunal.(2)The appellant or the Board, as the case may be, having declared his or their dissatisfaction, may, within thirty days after the determination, by notice in writing require the tribunal to state and sign a case for the opinion of the High Court.”
Under sections 705A(12) and 705B(1) of ICTA, in Scottish and Northern Irish appeals the case is stated for the opinion of the Court of Session sitting as the Court of Exchequer in Scotland and the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland, respectively.
Section 705A thus obliges the dissatisfied party to declare his or their dissatisfaction before requiring the tribunal to state a case.
This obligation is considered to be superfluous.
Section 56 of TMA also deals with tax appeals to the courts by way of case stated. Section 56 of TMA (statement of case for opinion of High Court) was amended by SI 1994/1813, which (among other things) confined section 56 to appeals from the General Commissioners and substituted section 56A of TMA (appeals from the Special Commissioners). SI 1994/1813 repealed section 56(1) and (2) of TMA, the wording of which was identical in all material respects to section 705A(1) and (2). It is considered a historical accident that the obligation to declare dissatisfaction has been retained in section 705A of ICTA when it has been omitted from section 56 of TMA.
Section 707, which is based on section 705A of ICTA, therefore omits the requirement for the dissatisfied party to declare dissatisfaction before requiring the tribunal to state a case.