Scott v HMRC: Principles, Policies and Interpretation

Abstract

The separation of the context from the content of words in a statute is one principle of statutory construction which underpinned the judgment of the Upper Tribunal (UT) in Scott v HMRC. The other principle is that, when searching for the purpose of words in a statute, the tribunals and courts will seek to interpret legislation in a manner which brings coherence to the law. When these two principles are combined, as demonstrated by HMRC’s success before both the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) and the UT in Scott v HMRC, a taxpayer will struggle to convince a tribunal or court that a broad policy goal mentioned in a ministerial statement should be used in order to produce what approaches incoherence across statutory provisions. Further, the case illustrates the inefficiency of the limitation on public law issues being heard by the FTT.

Note: This material was first published by the British Tax Review and is reproduced by agreement with the Publishers.

Keywords: Tax, Statutory Interpretation