ARTG8360 | First-tier and Upper Tribunals: Preparing for tribunal: Tribunals Service action on receipt of appeal or application

All appeals and applications sent to the Tribunals Service are initially handled at their Central Processing Centre in Birmingham, but certain categories of case are administered by other Tribunals Service offices, see ARTG8330.

The Tribunals Service allocate the case to a category, see ARTG8350, and then send copies of the notice of appeal and notice of decision to the HMRC Clearing House, see ARTG8320, by secure email. Where the appeal and supporting documentation is bulky, they will send it by post. The Tribunals Service will also send a covering email or letter as appropriate saying what further information HMRC needs to provide, how long they have to provide it and where any response should be sent.

For example, for Default Paper, Standard and Complex cases there are time limits within which HMRC must provide further information, see ARTG8370 to ARTG8400.

In Default Paper, Standard and Complex cases HMRC is asked to provide a statement of case, see ARTG8370 and ARTG8390.

The Clearing House will send the email or letter from the Tribunals Service to the relevant Appeals Unit or Review Team, who will then correspond directly with the Tribunals Service, rather than going through the Clearing House.

Once HMRC and the customer have provided the required information the Tribunals Service will write to both parties with a hearing date and venue, except in Default Paper cases where there is no hearing. In Standard and Complex cases the Tribunals Service will write to the parties asking for dates to avoid before allocating a hearing date.

As no further information will normally be required prior to the hearing for Basic cases the Tribunals Service will write to both parties with a hearing date and venue when they receive the appeal.