Sandra Eden's main area of research interest is tax law and policy. She is also an expert in pension law, especially the taxation of pensions. She has published widely in these fields. She has also published articles on questions of legal process and access to justice.
This article considers the supervisory jurisdiction of the UK courts through an examination of their control of the UK tax authorities. It concentrates on the conditions under which the tax authorities have been authorized by the UK courts to enter extra statutory arrangements to afford some taxpayers concessional treatment. The article considers the basis of judicial review and then examines the legislative framework within which the Revenue operates. With this background the article considers the principles of judicial review in tax cases. Starting with the general principles, it then examines the argument that the Revenue makes extra statutory concessions on the basis of its powers of care and management and it considers the limitations of that argument. The cases dealing with legitimate expectation are examined too, as are the limits on the legitimate expectation principle. Finally, the article considers the slippery principle of equality within the UK constitution and the equally frustrating (for third parties) problem of establishing locus standi.
The article concludes that there are significant tensions between competing interests when the Courts review the Revenue's granting of extra statutory concessions. They seem to have afforded the taxing authorities considerable autonomy in their fulfilment of their management function, but they have limited them to the exercise of discretion only in the course of their care and management of the tax system and in the context of their primary duty to collect tax. The author concludes that the courts have done well in balancing the interests of the tax authorities and taxpayer but that wider interests, such as equality between taxpayers, have not fared as well.
Sandra Eden 'Cautionary Tales - the Continued Development of Smith v Bank of Scotland' (2003) Edinburgh Law Review Vol 7 pp 107 - 118
Sandra Eden, Alan Barr 'Checking and Revising Tax and Related Matters' in Iain Talman (eds) Halliday, Conveyancing Law and Practice (2nd ed) (W. Green/SULI, 1996)
Sandra Eden 'Taxation' in Sandra Eden, D. Nichols (eds) Scottish Family Law Service (Butterworths, 1995) Division A, §§222-235, 351-352, 584-624. 781-800, 1261-1299, 1491-1496, Division C, §§2301-2365
Notes and Reviews
Sandra Eden 'The working families' tax credit and the disabled person's tax credit' (2000) Family Law Bulletin Vol 35 pp 1-3
Sandra Eden 'Tax negotiation - the boundaries of legitimate exercise of power by the UK tax authorities' presented at Comparative Tax Law, Rome 2002, 2002
Taxation difficulties of increased globalistion and new methods of doing business
Sandra Eden 'Taxation of income from moveable capital' presented at II Congreso Internacional: Fiscalidad sobre el capital mobilario, Murcia, Spain, 1999
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