Tribunal case – incomplete NI record
A taxpayer had made several successful appeals to have his NI contribution record revised. His final appeal was to the first-tier tribunal who accepted HMRC’s argument that there were gaps in the contributions and that no further appeals were appropriate.
The taxpayer was awarded a state retirement pension from 16 April 2001. It was not a full pension however as he did not have a full NIC record. The taxpayer appealed, contending that he had paid contributions from 1975 to 1982, but that his contributions for those years had not been recorded.
Initial appeals had to be made to the Pension Service of the Department for Work and Pensions (“DWP”). Subsequent appeals were made to Inland Revenue and then to HMRC.
The case report evidences the difficulties HMRC has in accessing all relevant data to resist appeals. The Judge also noted that the DWP made inaccurate statements in its responses to the taxpayer’s appeals.
Each time the taxpayer appealed decisions as to his contribution record, by reference to data and evidence that he supplied, his pension was increased. During the periods in question he had been variously self employed, a partner and a director.
The Judge indicated that he quite understood why the taxpayer had persisted with his appeals. He also held that those earlier appeals have now resulted in the best decision available to the taxpayer on all the evidence. On that basis the judge found in favour of the HMRC decision under appeal.