Company news
10 August 2023
Innovation Successful at Upper Tribunal Hearing
In a long running dispute with HMRC, following the Total People Ltd (TC661) case of 2010, the latest hearing at the Upper Tribunal has found in favour of the taxpayer.
In this hearing, the cases of Willmott Dixon (represented by Innovation) and Laing O’Rourke were held jointly due to the similarity of both claims.
The claims stated that Car Allowance figures that have historically been paid to employees, should be viewed as a Relevant Motoring Expense (RME) and as such should not have been subject to National Insurance contributions where business mileage had been completed by the employee.
HMRC disagreed with this and stated that the Car Allowance was not an RME and instead was another form of salary.
The judges found in favour of Willmott Dixon and Laing O’Rourke, who now stand to recoup a substantial sum from HMRC in overpaid National Insurance Contributions.
HMRC have 30 days, from July 10th 2023, to decide if they wish to appeal the judgement, unless they successfully apply for an extension.
This ruling is a landmark case and sets a precedent that many other clients who have already submitted their own claim will now also be able to recover any overpaid National Insurance Contributions from HMRC.
If you haven’t already submitted your claim, you can still do so providing you have sufficient business mileage records. The claim can be backdated for the current tax year plus previous six tax years.
In the absence of business mileage records to substantiate a claim we’d encourage you to get in contact with Innovation to discuss how we can ensure that you are paying the correct amount of National Insurance Contributions going forward.
For more information, please contact Peter Moroz at ISC@innovationllp.com or call John Messore on 07884 006164