INLAND REVENUE COMMISSIONERS Vs. AKEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal by the taxpayer. Marion Aken, from a decision of Mr. Piers Ashworthy Q. C., sitting as a deputy judge of the Queens Bench Division, whereby he ordered summary judgment under Order 14 for payment to the Inland Revenue Commissioners of the sum of Pounds 58,000 -odd in respect of income tax and interest thereon.

(2.) FOR some years until 1983 the taxpayer was a prostitute; her earnings from prostitution were substantial and they came to the attention of the revenue in about 1980, partly in consequence of a television programme in which she appeared and spoke of her earnings. The years of assessment with which we BBX are concerned are as follows :

(3.) WHEN the statement of claim was delivered in this case. The taxpayer wrote a letter, which was treated as her defence. She objected that the sums assessed did not take into account her outgoings, but her main contention was that if she was living on immoral earnings, the taxation of those earnings meant that the Crown would be living on immoral earnings as well. That contention, in a more elaborate and sophisticated form, remains largely her defence.