EM8135 - Companies: Groups: Discovery Assessments and Determinations
FA98/SCH18/PARA 43
FA98/SCH18/PARA 44
You can make a discovery assessment or determination for an accounting period when a return has been delivered and either the conditions in Para 43 or the conditions in Para 44 are satisfied EM3250+.
Information is not regarded as made available to HMRC if it is made available in a return, claim, documents, accounts, information, or notified in writing by another company even if that other company is a member of the same group.
So information included in Company A’s return or in the course of an enquiry into its return that leads you to discover additional liability in respect of Company B in the same group would allow you to make a discovery assessment on company B so long as the information had not been made available by Company B before the enquiry window closed.
This also applies where an enquiry has been concluded, either in the normal way or following a tribunal’s direction to complete, into Company B’s return.
It does not matter that the information may have been supplied before the enquiry window closed if the information was not made available by the company on whom you wish to make the discovery assessment or determination.
You need to take care where there is general correspondence with the group on an issue that may affect more than one company in the group. The group will probably construe the correspondence as each affected company making the information available for the purposes of Paragraph 44(2)(d)(ii). You should clarify which companies the correspondence is intended to cover and ensure that you open an enquiry into each company’s return.