Finance Act 1985

22 Assessments: time limits and supplementary assessments. U.K.

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, an assessment—

(a) under any provision of paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the principal Act, or

(b) under section 21 above,

shall not be made more than six years after the end of the prescribed accounting period or importation concerned or, in the case of an assessment under section 21 above of an amount due by way of a penalty which is not among those referred to in subsection (2) of that section, six years after the event giving rise to the penalty.

(2) Subject to subsection (5) below, an assessment under section 21 above of an amount due by way of any penalty, interest or surcharge referred to in subsection (2) of that section may be made at any time before the expiry of the period of two years beginning when the amount of tax due for the prescribed accounting period concerned has been finally determined.

(3) In relation to an assessment under section 21 above, any reference in subsection (1) or subsection (2) above to the prescribed accounting period concerned is a reference to that period which, in the case of the penalty, interest or surcharge concerned, is the relevant period referred to in subsection (2) of that section.

(4) Subject to subsection (5) below, if tax has been lost—

(a) as a result of conduct falling within section 13(1) above or for which a person has been convicted of fraud, or

(b) in circumstances giving rise to liability to a penalty under section 15 above,

an assessment may be made as if, in subsection (1) above, each reference to six years were a reference to twenty years.

(5) Where, after a person’s death, the Commissioners propose to assess a sum as due by reason of some conduct (howsoever described) of the deceased, including a sum due by way of penalty, interest or surcharge,—

(a) the assessment shall not be made more than three years after the death; and

(b) if the circumstances are as set out in subsection (4) above, the modification of subsection (1) above contained in that subsection shall not apply but any assessment which (from the point of view of time limits) could have been made immediately after the death may be made at any time within three years after it.

(6) Subparagraphs (7) and (8) of paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the principal Act (which are superseded by the preceding provisions of this section) shall cease to have effect.

(7) If, otherwise than in circumstances falling within subparagraph (5)(b) of paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the principal Act (further evidence relating to an assessment under subparagraph (1) or subparagraph (2) of that paragraph), it appears to the Commissioners that the amount which ought to have been assessed in an assessment under any provision of that paragraph or under section 21 above exceeds the amount which was so assessed, then,—

(a) under the like provision as that assessment was made, and

(b) on or before the last day on which that assessment could have been made,

the Commissioners may make a supplementary assessment of the amount of the excess and shall notify the person concerned accordingly.