slug: haworth-v-hmrc

reading: R (Haworth) v HMRC [2021] UKSC 25 concerns Tax administration and judicial review in England and Wales.

state: mapped

reading: The Supreme Court decided HMRC's appeal in judicial-review proceedings about follower and accelerated-payment notices. The underlying tax appeal remained separate.

gaps: Issue 3, whether factual findings form part of the 'principles laid down or reasoning given' for Finance Act 2014 section 205(3)(b), is not separately mapped in the canonical case record.

gaps: Issue 4, whether Finance Act 2014 section 206 invalidated the notice because HMRC did not adequately explain why Smallwood determined the case, is not separately mapped in the canonical case record.

reading: What happens when HMRC uses a penalty-backed notice that pressures a taxpayer to abandon an appeal, but has not reached the level of certainty Parliament required? The canonical packet separately maps Issues 1 and 2, but not every issue decided by the Supreme Court.

state: partial

gaps: Complete witness, documentary and agreed-fact records are not mapped.

reading: The packet maps the trust arrangements, notice issue, stated demand and procedural outcomes. It does not reproduce the complete evidential record or every disputed fact.

gaps: Exact primary-legislation provision records and a complete authority table are not mapped.

reading: The packet maps the statutory threshold through the court's findings and identifies Smallwood as the earlier authority. It does not extract a provision-by-provision primary-law ledger.

gaps: Map each party's grounds, submissions, concessions and requested disposition from the judgment and filed materials.

reading: The packet does not give a complete, side-by-side account of each party's pleaded arguments and concessions.

state: not-mapped

gaps: A full burden-and-standard map and the complete contemporaneous decision record are not included.

reading: The court's reasons expose HMRC's recorded level of confidence—likely rather than the statutory 'would' threshold—but the packet does not map every burden, standard and evidential item.

gaps: The Senior Courts Act 1981 section 31(2A) materiality and relief analysis attached to the Smallwood misdirection is not separately mapped.

reading: The packet maps two independently sufficient issue branches: the statutory threshold was not met, and HMRC overstated what the earlier ruling established. The second branch's separate relief step is not mapped.

gaps: Every rejected or alternative argument is not mapped.

gaps: The canonical record does not separately map the court's treatment of Issues 3 and 4.

reading: The access-to-justice effect supports a restrictive reading of the power. The packet also records boundaries, but not a complete inventory of every rejected submission.

reading: The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed HMRC's appeal, leaving both notices quashed.

gaps: The complete costs, funding, interest and tax-on-recovery record is not mapped.

gaps: The Senior Courts Act 1981 section 31(2A) materiality and relief analysis is not separately mapped, so this view does not imply that every legal error produces quashing.

reading: £8.786m demand affected; no damages award identified. The notices were quashed; the packet identifies no damages award or established net recovery and does not quantify complete costs.

gaps: No new person's facts, decision document, current deadline or professional assessment is present.

reading: The later merits appeal failed. Transfer to another matter requires the exact current power, notice, reasoning record, route, facts and clock; similarity alone is not enough.

instruction: Map the approved public case packet across all twelve framework dimensions. Preserve partial and not-mapped states; do not fill gaps from intuition.

split: evaluation

taskFamily: map-dimensions


holding: The Supreme Court dismissed HMRC's appeal and left the follower and accelerated-payment notices quashed. The mapped record identifies two independently sufficient issue branches: the statutory threshold was not met, and HMRC had overstated the earlier authority; the second branch's separate relief step remains explicitly unmapped.

decisiveness: decisive

proposition: HMRC's conclusion that the earlier Smallwood ruling was likely to deny the tax advantage did not meet the statutory use of 'would'. The required opinion left no scope for a reasonable person to disagree.

gaps: The canonical case record does not separately map the court's Senior Courts Act 1981 section 31(2A) materiality and relief step. This proposition must not be read as saying every legal misdirection requires quashing.

proposition: HMRC misdirected itself by treating seven indicators from Smallwood as inevitably locating the trust's effective management in the UK.

decisiveness: supporting

proposition: Because the penalty risk discouraged a taxpayer from continuing an appeal, the regime interfered with access to justice and the statutory power had to be interpreted restrictively.

decisiveness: boundary

gaps: The packet does not give a single pinpoint for this cross-proceeding boundary.

issueBranch: cross-proceeding-boundary

proposition: Quashing the notices did not decide whether the underlying tax was due.

gaps: The packet maps the later disposition but not every argument or finding in the separate merits appeal.

issueBranch: later-merits-history

proposition: The underlying tax appeal was later dismissed through the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Court of Appeal; the Supreme Court refused permission to appeal.

holding: The Supreme Court dismissed HMRC's appeal and left the follower and accelerated-payment notices quashed. The mapped record identifies two independently sufficient issue branches: the statutory threshold was not met, and HMRC had overstated the earlier authority; the second branch's separate relief step remains explicitly unmapped.

instruction: Identify concise public reasons that were outcome-determinative within an issue or formed an independently sufficient branch. Keep supporting reasons, incomplete steps and boundaries distinct. Do not provide hidden chain-of-thought.

split: evaluation

taskFamily: identify-decisive-reasons


status: documented-amount-affected-not-recovery

summary: £8.786m demand affected; no damages award identified. The reviewed official sources identify no damages award in these proceedings. The sources identify no damages award, Mr Haworth had not paid the accelerated amount, the underlying tax appeal later failed, and this packet has no complete costs, interest, funding or tax-on-recovery record.

status: notices-quashed

summary: HMRC's appeal was dismissed and the follower and accelerated-payment notices remained quashed.

status: later-tax-appeal-lost

summary: The underlying tax appeal was later dismissed through the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Court of Appeal; the Supreme Court refused permission to appeal.

holding: The Supreme Court dismissed HMRC's appeal and left the follower and accelerated-payment notices quashed. The mapped record identifies two independently sufficient issue branches: the statutory threshold was not met, and HMRC had overstated the earlier authority; the second branch's separate relief step remains explicitly unmapped.

instruction: Separate the procedural disposition, later underlying-merits result and money meaning. Do not turn an affected demand into an award or recovery.

split: evaluation

taskFamily: separate-outcomes


description: The court had to determine the certainty Parliament required before HMRC could issue a penalty-backed follower notice.

evidenceNeeded: The decision-maker's contemporaneous reasoning

impact: Treating 'would' as mere likelihood would widen a power that could deter continuation of an appeal.

kind: statutory-interpretation

materiality: decisive

resolution: HMRC's conclusion that the earlier Smallwood ruling was likely to deny the tax advantage did not meet the statutory use of 'would'. The required opinion left no scope for a reasonable person to disagree.

state: resolved-in-decision

blockers: The canonical case record does not separately map the Senior Courts Act 1981 section 31(2A) materiality and relief step for this issue branch.

description: HMRC treated indicators in Smallwood as if they inevitably determined the result.

evidenceNeeded: The decision-maker's account of why the cases match

impact: The scope of the earlier ruling determined whether the statutory notice condition could be met.

kind: authority-and-precedent

resolution: HMRC misdirected itself by treating seven indicators from Smallwood as inevitably locating the trust's effective management in the UK. The mapped proposition is only part of the branch; the separate relief step remains an explicit gap.

state: bounded-by-record

description: The penalty risk put pressure on a taxpayer to abandon an independent appeal.

evidenceNeeded: The practical consequence of non-compliance

impact: That practical interference supported a restrictive reading of the statutory power.

kind: timing-and-procedure

materiality: material

resolution: Because the penalty risk discouraged a taxpayer from continuing an appeal, the regime interfered with access to justice and the statutory power had to be interpreted restrictively.

blockers: The packet does not reproduce every later merits issue and reason.

description: Success in reviewing the notices did not decide the separate underlying tax liability.

evidenceNeeded: The exact order in the public-law proceedings

impact: Collapsing the two routes would turn a procedural remedy into a false claim of substantive tax success.

kind: later-history

resolution: The notices stayed quashed, while the later underlying tax appeal failed.

blockers: The public packet does not contain a complete net-recovery record.

description: A large accelerated demand was affected, but it was not a damages award, refund or established net recovery.

evidenceNeeded: Costs, interest, funding and tax-on-recovery records

impact: Using the demand as a gain would materially misstate the decided remedy and financial result.

kind: remedy-and-enforcement

resolution: £8.786m demand affected; no damages award identified; The sources identify no damages award, Mr Haworth had not paid the accelerated amount, the underlying tax appeal later failed, and this packet has no complete costs, interest, funding or tax-on-recovery record.

blockers: No new person's facts or documents are accepted by this public API.

description: The reasoning pattern can guide questions, but it cannot decide a new dispute without the new power, facts, route and timing.

evidenceNeeded: The current statutory power and guidance

evidenceNeeded: The applicable review, appeal or judicial-review clock

impact: Uncontrolled analogy would turn historical research into unsupported legal advice or outcome prediction.

kind: transfer-to-new-facts

resolution: A qualified assessor should first check any statutory review or appeal, then consider judicial review only where appropriate and within the applicable clock.

state: open-for-new-case

instruction: Identify the difficulties that materially change how the case should be read. Name their impact, evidence needs, blockers and decided resolution without scoring future success.

split: evaluation

taskFamily: identify-major-challenges