# Finance Act 1998, Paragraph 44

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

(1) A discovery assessment for an accounting period for which the company has delivered a company tax return, or a discovery determination, may be made if at the time when an officer of Revenue and Customs—
(a) ceased to be entitled to give a notice of enquiry into the return, or
(b) in a case where a notice of enquiry into the return was given—
(i) issued a partial closure notice as regards a matter to which the situation mentioned in paragraph 41(1) or (2) relates, or
(ii) if no such partial closure notice was issued, issued a final closure notice,
he could not have been reasonably expected, on the basis of the information made available to him before that time, to be aware of the situation mentioned in paragraph 41(1) or (2).
(2) For this purpose information is regarded as made available to an officer of Revenue and Customs if—
(a) it is contained in a relevant return by the company or in documents accompanying any such return, or
(b) it is contained in a relevant claim made by the company or in any accounts, statements or documents accompanying any such claim, or
(c) it is contained in any documents, accounts or information produced or provided by the company to an officer of Revenue and Customs for the purposes of an enquiry into any such return or claim, or
(d) it is information the existence of which, and the relevance of which as regards the situation mentioned in paragraph 41(1) or (2)—
(i) could reasonably be expected to be inferred by an officer of Revenue and Customs from information falling within paragraphs (a) to (c) above, or
(ii) are notified in writing to an officer of Revenue and Customs by the company or a person acting on its behalf.
(3) In sub-paragraph (2)—
“relevant return” means the company’s company tax return for the period in question or either of the two immediately preceding accounting periods, and
“relevant claim” means a claim made by or on behalf of the company as regards the period in question or an application under section 751A of the Taxes Act 1988 made by or on behalf of the company which affects the company's tax return for the period in question.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/36/schedule/18/paragraph/44 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/finance-act-1998/schedule-18/paragraph-44
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.