Judge says HMRC treatment of dyslexic father an outrage

Tax authorities pursued painter with mental age of 12 for £18,000

THE tax authorities have been criticised for their “outrageous” treatment of a dyslexic painter and decorator who has the mental age of a 12-year-old.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs had relentlessly pursued John Clark, from Dunfermline, insisting he owed almost £18,000 in back tax.

However,

a

judge

has now ordered cancellation of the bill and criticised HMRC for failing to make the slightest concession for his acute vulnerability.

Mr Clark, of Carnock, suffers from crushing dyslexia and his learning difficulties are so severe he has the mental age of a 12-year-old.

Working par t time as a painter and decorator, he managed to keep on top of his paperwork until he and his wife split up in 2003.

She died in 2013 and Mr Clark ended up as sole carer for their primary-school age daughter, said Judge Kenneth Mure.

The family home was left a ruin by a fire in 2006 and he and his daughter could not return there for almost a year.

Despite all that, HMRC hit him with an income tax demand of £17,779, covering six years during which he was accused of failing to declare his earnings.

His daughter penned a written plea to the tax office on her father’s behalf, but it was sent back unopened and marked, “sent to wrong department’.

He visited the tax

office

in Dunfermline three times – on one occasion taking 20 minutes to write down just four pleading lines.

Mr Clark, who sank into depression after his wife left him, denied he had earned anything like enough to be liable for tax – but HMRC was immoveable on the issue.

Now, however, Judge Mure has come to his aid, describing the t ax author i t ies’ st ance as “unconscionable”.

That meant it was “completely unreasonable, outrageous, grossly unfair and without regard to what is right”, he said.

The judge, sitting at the first-tier tribunal, condemned HMRC’s treatment of Mr Clark as “too narrow, inadequate and lacking in any consideration of his peculiar vulnerability”.

He added: “It ignores his inability to engage fully and satisfactorily with the tax authorities. It neither recognises nor makes any concessions to his vulnerability.”

He described Mr Clark as “an entirely credible witness” and ordered HMRC to grant him “special relief” and cancel the tax bill

An HMRC spokesman said: “We aim to treat all our customers with fairness, respect and compassion, but we clearly got it very wrong in this case and badly let down a vulnerable customer whom we should have helped. We apologise unreservedly to Mr Clark for the worry and stress we caused him. We will investigate what happened in Mr Clark’s case, to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

‘‘ It was completely unreasonable, outrageous, grossly unfair and without regard to what is right