HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) must revisit a data request from Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley after wrongly withholding personal information tied to a £13.6 million ($17 million) tax dispute, a London court ruled Monday.
High Court Judge Heather Williams concluded that HMRC took an “unduly restrictive approach” in its response to Ashley’s subject access request, failing to provide all personal data it held during its investigation into Ashley’s 2012 property sale.
Narrow Disclosure Challenged
The dispute arose from Ashley’s sale of 32 properties in 2012 for £88.6 million to Sports Direct International PLC, a company he owned. HMRC challenged the sale’s valuation, initially determining the properties were worth closer to £60 million, and issued a £13.6 million tax demand in 2016.
Ashley contested the assessment, leading HMRC to withdraw the notice in 2022 after admitting procedural errors, including investigating the wrong tax year and being time-barred from reopening the inquiry.
Ashley subsequently submitted a broad subject access request under U.K. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for “all information” held on him by HMRC. Judge Williams found that HMRC provided only a fraction of the relevant data, failing to include records processed by its executive agency, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).
