Land Transaction Tax: when you can challenge WRA decisions but not an enquiry notice
Can you challenge WRA?
Some WRA decisions can be reviewed or appealed, but the route depends on the type of decision.
- Tax, payment-date and penalty decisions are generally included.
- Information notices have limited grounds for challenge.
- Opening an enquiry cannot itself be challenged through this route.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
Land Transaction Tax: when you can challenge WRA decisions but not an enquiry notice
Land Transaction Tax: when you can challenge WRA decisions but not an enquiry notice
You cannot challenge every decision by the Welsh Revenue Authority. For some decisions, WRA offers a review or you can make an appeal. Others have neither route. When WRA makes a decision that affects your Land Transaction Tax bill, imposes a penalty, or asks you for information, the difference matters greatly. It can determine your next step.
What this rule is about
WRA collects devolved taxes in Wales, including Land Transaction Tax. Land Transaction Tax replaced stamp duty land tax in Wales. When WRA makes a decision, the law limits whether you can ask it to reconsider or take the matter further.
The official guidance calls the decisions you can challenge “appealable decisions”. That name can mislead. Depending on the exact decision, you may request a review, make an appeal, or have a choice between those routes. The available route varies. It does not give you a way to challenge every WRA letter in the same way.
This is the point people often miss: first identify the decision. Then check whether the list includes that exact type of decision.
What the official source says
According to WRA’s technical guidance, you can request a review or appeal a decision that affects whether you must pay a devolved tax, how much you must pay, or the day payment is due. The guidance also includes decisions about tax penalties.
The list also covers several other decisions. It includes some information notices, certain notices about group or reconstruction relief, and specified landfill disposals tax matters, but only where the guidance specifies them. The scope is specific.
- You can challenge a decision about whether you must pay a devolved tax.
- You can challenge a decision about the amount of devolved tax due.
- You can challenge a decision about the payment due date.
- You can challenge a decision about a tax penalty.
- You may challenge a decision to issue an information notice, but only on limited grounds.
- You may also challenge a decision about a requirement inside an information notice on those grounds.
- You can challenge specified recovery notices for group relief.
- You can challenge specified recovery notices for reconstruction or acquisition relief.
- You can challenge listed landfill disposals tax decisions.
An information notice formally asks for information or documents. You cannot challenge one simply because it is inconvenient, costly, or unwelcome. The official guidance gives only three types of argument.
- It is unreasonable to expect you to comply with the notice.
- Sections 97 to 102 may provide an exemption where information is protected or lies outside your power or possession, even when WRA requests it. This is a limited ground.
- For a notice seeking information about a debtor, Condition 4 is not met.
Condition 4 concerns how the person holding the information got it. They must have obtained the debtor’s details while carrying on a business.
There is a further limit. If a tribunal approved WRA issuing the information notice, you cannot ask WRA to review its decision to issue that notice.
Some decisions sit outside this route altogether. The official guidance says you cannot request a review or make an appeal against WRA’s decision to open an enquiry into a tax return, an amended return, a claim, or an amended claim. The same applies to certain taxpayer notices and notices concerning subsidiary undertakings.
What this means in practice
A letter from WRA may feel final. It may not be. If it changes the tax you must pay, adds a penalty, or changes the payment date, the guidance identifies that kind of decision as challengeable.
But an enquiry notice is different. It starts WRA’s checking process. The official guidance says you cannot use a review or appeal to challenge WRA’s decision to start that enquiry, even though the enquiry may later lead to another decision. It starts the process.
That does not mean you must agree with every later outcome. This particular route does not let you challenge the opening of the enquiry.
- Read the heading and wording of the WRA letter carefully.
- Check whether it states a decision, asks for information, or opens an enquiry.
- Keep the full notice, including any schedules and attachments.
- For an information notice, identify the exact item you say you cannot provide.
- Record why you cannot comply and what steps you have already taken.
- Check whether WRA says a tribunal approved the notice.
How to analyse it
Start with a simple question: what has WRA actually decided? A request for information, an enquiry, a penalty, and a calculation are not the same thing. The label is useful, but the substance matters too.
- Identify the decision and the date on the WRA notice.
- Match it against the types of decision listed in the official guidance.
- If it is an information notice, test only the limited grounds described above.
- Check whether the notice concerns a debtor and, if so, whether the business condition is met.
- Check for tribunal approval of the information notice.
- Check whether WRA is already carrying out an enquiry into an amended self-assessed return.
- Check whether you have already made a tribunal appeal about the same matter.
- Check whether that appeal was withdrawn or already decided.
- Check whether you entered a settlement agreement with WRA and, if so, whether you withdrew from it.
Those final checks matter because the official guidance stops you requesting a review in those situations. You cannot use a review to run the same unresolved matter in two places at once.
Example
Imagine that Aisha receives a WRA information notice asking for records. She believes one item is not in her possession or power. The official guidance identifies that as a possible basis for challenging the notice or that requirement.
Now change one fact. A tribunal approved the notice before WRA issued it. Aisha cannot ask WRA for a review of its decision to issue the notice. The guidance does not say that every possible route is closed, so the notice and the relevant law need careful checking.
Why this can be difficult in practice
The hard part often lies not in disliking WRA’s decision, but in placing that decision in the right legal category when a single letter contains several different actions. Each action may have different options.
Information notices are especially fact-sensitive. Saying “I do not have it” may not settle the question. What matters is whether the information is in your power or possession, and whether it is unreasonable to expect you to comply.
- People often assume every WRA letter carries a right of appeal. It does not.
- The guidance does not let you review or appeal the opening of an enquiry by itself.
- An information notice has restricted grounds for challenge.
- Tribunal approval changes whether you can seek a WRA review of an information notice.
- A live tribunal appeal can prevent a review of the same matter.
- A settlement agreement can also prevent a review unless you have withdrawn from it.
Key takeaways
- Check the exact WRA decision before deciding whether you can challenge it.
- Tax, payment-date, and penalty decisions are included in the official list.
- You can challenge information notices only on narrow grounds.
- You cannot itself open an enquiry notice to review or appeal.
- Existing appeals and settlement agreements can block a review.
Technical analysis
For advisers, and for anyone who wants to check the law behind this page. You do not need this section to understand the guidance above.
Legislation
- TCMA 2016 section 43 — enquiries into tax returns and return amendments
- TCMA 2016 section 74 — enquiries into claims and claim amendments
- TCMA 2016 section 86 — taxpayer information notices and their requirements
- TCMA 2016 section 90 — information notices concerning subsidiary undertakings
- TCMA 2016 section 92 — information notices seeking details about a debtor
- TCMA 2016 section 93 — conditions for debtor information notices
- TCMA 2016 section 97 — limits on information required by a notice
- TCMA 2016 section 98 — limits on information required by a notice
- TCMA 2016 section 99 — limits on information required by a notice
- TCMA 2016 section 100 — limits on information required by a notice
- TCMA 2016 section 101 — limits on information required by a notice
- TCMA 2016 section 102 — limits on information required by a notice
- TCMA 2016 section 172 — decisions that can be reviewed or appealed
- TCMA 2016 section 173 — WRA reviews of appealable decisions
Official guidance
The pages below are the Welsh Revenue Authority’s guidance. Guidance is not law. It sets out how the Welsh Revenue Authority reads the legislation, and it is not binding on you, on a tribunal or on a court. Where guidance and the legislation differ, the legislation wins. the Welsh Revenue Authority can also change or withdraw guidance, and it may not cover your facts.
- Welsh Revenue Authority, Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016: reviews and appeals technical guidance, TCMA/5010 to TCMA/5030
Where this is not settled
- The supplied official guidance summarises the information-notice exemptions without explaining how each exemption applies to particular facts.
- Whether it is unreasonable to expect compliance with an information notice will depend on what was requested and what the person can obtain.
- The current statutory text of the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 was not included in the supplied statute library, so the current position should be checked before relying on this page.
Evidence you would need
This kind of case is decided on the facts of the individual property. These are the records that usually settle it, and the ones an adviser would ask you for.
- The WRA decision or notice received
- Any tribunal approval attached to the information notice
- The exact information or documents requested
- Evidence showing why compliance is unreasonable or why an exemption applies
- Details of any current enquiry, tribunal appeal or settlement agreement
Explore this with an AI
Readers often want to test their own situation. Copy the prompt below into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It hands the model the actual legislation for this page rather than letting it answer from memory, and tells it to be explicit about what is uncertain. What comes back is information, not advice – check it against the links above.
I am researching Land Transaction Tax (LTT), the tax on property in Wales. It replaced Stamp Duty Land Tax in Wales on 1 April 2018, and SDLT does not apply in Wales. MY QUESTION Can you challenge a Welsh Revenue Authority decision? [Replace this with your own situation: what you are buying, the price, the dates, who the buyer is, and what you plan to do with the property.] THE LAW THIS TURNS ON - TCMA 2016 section 43 - enquiries into tax returns and return amendments https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/43 - TCMA 2016 section 74 - enquiries into claims and claim amendments https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/74 - TCMA 2016 section 86 - taxpayer information notices and their requirements https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/86 - TCMA 2016 section 90 - information notices concerning subsidiary undertakings https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/90 - TCMA 2016 section 92 - information notices seeking details about a debtor https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/92 - TCMA 2016 section 93 - conditions for debtor information notices https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/93 - TCMA 2016 section 97 - limits on information required by a notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/97 - TCMA 2016 section 98 - limits on information required by a notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/98 - TCMA 2016 section 99 - limits on information required by a notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/99 - TCMA 2016 section 100 - limits on information required by a notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/100 - TCMA 2016 section 101 - limits on information required by a notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/101 - TCMA 2016 section 102 - limits on information required by a notice https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/102 - TCMA 2016 section 172 - decisions that can be reviewed or appealed https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/172 - TCMA 2016 section 173 - WRA reviews of appealable decisions https://www.legislation.gov.uk/anaw/2016/6/section/173 Guidance page from the Welsh Revenue Authority on this topic (guidance, not law): https://www.gov.wales/tax-collection-and-management-wales-act-2016-reviews-and-appeals-technical-guidance#6620 HOW I WANT YOU TO ANSWER 1. Work from the legislation above. Read it before answering. Guidance from the Welsh Revenue Authority is its view of the law, not the law, and does not bind a tribunal or a court. 2. Tell me what the rule actually requires, in plain English. 3. Tell me which facts decide the answer, and which facts would change it. 4. Tell me what evidence I would need to support the position. 5. Be explicit about anything unsettled or fact-sensitive. Do not guess. 6. Your training data has a cutoff and SDLT rates and reliefs change at fiscal events. Say so if you are not sure the law is current. POINTS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE UNCERTAIN ON THIS TOPIC - The supplied official guidance summarises the information-notice exemptions without explaining how each exemption applies to particular facts. - Whether it is unreasonable to expect compliance with an information notice will depend on what was requested and what the person can obtain. - The current statutory text of the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 was not included in the supplied statute library, so the current position should be checked before relying on this page. Do not give me a conclusion you cannot support from the provisions above.
Legislation links show the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 as it stood on 2025-11-17. The law may have changed since, and the rules that apply are those in force on the date of your transaction. The official guidance this page is based on is here.
This page was last updated on 4 September 2026
Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Land Transaction Tax: when you can challenge WRA decisions but not an enquiry notice
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