Value Added Tax Act 1994

77Assessments: time limits and supplementary assessments

(1)Subject to the following provisions of this section, an assessment under section 73, 75 or 76, shall not be made—

(a)more than 6 years after the end of the prescribed accounting period or importation or acquisition concerned, or

(b)in the case of an assessment under section 76 of an amount due by way of a penalty which is not among those referred to in subsection (3) of that section, 6 years after the event giving rise to the penalty.

(2)Subject to subsection (5) below. an assessment under section 76 of an amount due by way of any penalty, interest or surcharge referred to in subsection (3) of that section may be made at any time before the expiry of the period of 2 years beginning—

(a)in the case of a penalty under section 65 or 66, with the time when facts sufficient in the opinion of the Commissioners to indicate, as the case may be—

(i)that the statement in question contained a material inaccuracy; or

(ii)that there had been a default within the meaning of section 66(1),

came to the Commissioners' knowledge; and

(b)in any other case, with the time when the amount of VAT due for the prescribed accounting period concerned has been finally determined.

(3)In relation to an assessment under section 76, any reference in subsection (1) or (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 (3) of that section.

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

(a)as a result of conduct falling within section 60(1) or for which a person has been convicted of fraud, or

(b)in circumstances giving rise to liability to a penalty under section 67,

an assessment may be made as if, in subsection (1) above, each reference to 6 years were a reference to 20 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 3 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 3 years after it.

(6)If, otherwise than in circumstances falling within section 73(6)(b) or 75(2)(b), it appears to the Commissioners that the amount which ought to have been assessed in an assessment under that section or under section 76 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.