The High Court affirmed a Tax Appeals Commission determination after rejecting a taxpayer’s case stated, and ordered him to pay the Revenue Commissioners’ costs of the proceedings, to be adjudicated in default of agreement.
In a ruling delivered on 19 March 2021, Mr Justice Mark Sanfey considered the form of orders following his substantive judgment in the case. The case stated asked the High Court to consider questions of law arising from a Tax Commissioner’s determination of 11 October 2019. The substantive judgment, delivered on 22 February 2021, had found the taxpayer’s appeal unsuccessful.
The Revenue Commissioners sought their costs, relying on the general rule in the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 that a party entirely successful in proceedings is entitled to costs unless the court orders otherwise. The taxpayer argued that the court had discretion under the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 and should make no costs order. He submitted that his appeal had substance and that routinely ordering costs against unsuccessful taxpayers could deter appeals on points of law. He also referred to statutory interest on unpaid tax and the possibility of a penalty.
Justice Sanfey said costs questions in case stated appeals could require careful consideration, particularly where a genuinely difficult question of legal interpretation was involved. But he said this case did not concern an abstruse provision of the tax legislation. The taxpayer had alleged that the Tax Appeals Commission proceedings were mishandled and that the Commissioner had erred in law; the judge said those arguments had been entirely unsuccessful.
The judge said a party seeking to state a case on alleged errors arising from the Commission’s less formal procedures bore a high onus to show an infirmity suggesting an error of law or jurisdiction. He concluded that the taxpayer had not met that onus and that the Revenue Commissioners had been forced to incur the cost of contesting the case stated.
The court therefore made an order affirming the Commissioner’s determination under section 949AR(1)(a) of the 1997 Act and awarded the Revenue Commissioners the costs of the proceedings. The amount was not specified; it is to be adjudicated if the parties do not agree.