Farouk El-Kiey and Houssni Goha

18824

ZERO-RATING – assessment of proportion of standard-rated and zero-rated supplies based on two days invigilations – appeal dismissed

LONDON TRIBUNAL CENTRE

FAROUK EL-KIEY AND HOUSSNI GOHA

T/A NEW ERA CAFEAppellants

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Tribunal:DR JOHN F AVERY JONES CBE (Chairman)

ELIZABETH MACLEOD CIPM

Sitting in public in London on 22 October 2004

The Appellants did not appear and were not represented

Jonathan Holl, Senior Officer, HM Customs and Excise, for the Respondents

DECISION

This is an appeal by Farouk El-Kiey and Houssni Goha Trading as New Era Café against four assessments to VAT for a total of £28,078 in respect of periods from 1 January 1999 to 30 June 2003. The issue is the proportion of zero-rated supplies.
The Appellants did not attend and their accountants sent a fax to the Tribunal saying that they had not been able to contact their clients and they had no instructions.
Mr Holl, for the Commissioners, told us that he had visited the café on his way to the Tribunal and found it under new ownership. He was told that Mr Goha had gone to Poland and that it was not known where Mr El-Kiey was. He requested that we hear the appeal in the absence of the Appellants and dismiss the appeal as the burden of proof was on them to disprove the assessment.
We have looked at the papers. The assessment is based on two days invigilations by the Commissioners on 25 July 2001 and 1 November 2001 following which they assessed the trader on the basis that 85 per cent of the turnover was standard-rated rather than the figure around 45 per cent that the Appellants had used. We have not seen anything from the Appellants to disprove this.
Accordingly we dismiss the appeal.

LON/04/162