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For direct taxes such as income tax, corporation tax and capital gains tax, you appeal to HMRC first, using the form sent with the decision letter or in writing, within 30 days. The caseworker who made the decision looks at it again. For indirect taxes such as VAT, excise and customs duty, HMRC offers a review in the decision letter itself and you have 30 days to accept it or appeal to the tribunal.

If HMRC does not change its decision, you will be offered a review by someone not previously involved. GOV.UK notes that reviews are usually quicker than appeals to the tax tribunal, and you can ask for one at any time after appealing rather than waiting. If you turn the review down, or disagree with its outcome, the appeal goes to the tribunal within 30 days.

Thirty days from the date on the decision letter is the recurring figure: to appeal to HMRC, to accept a review offer, and to notify an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal. GOV.UK states that you usually have 30 days to appeal from the date on your decision letter, and that if you are late you must explain why, with a judge deciding whether to accept it.

A late appeal is not a formality. You are asking for permission, and the reason has to be a real one. The practical discipline is to diary the date the day the letter arrives, and to take advice inside the window even if the underlying dispute will take months to resolve.

HMRC administers the UK-wide taxes, but property transaction taxes are devolved and so are their disputes. Revenue Scotland collects and administers Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, Scottish Landfill Tax and Scottish Aggregates Tax, with further devolved taxes legislated for later years. The Welsh Revenue Authority collects and manages Land Transaction Tax for the Welsh Government.

Each authority has its own guidance, its own review procedure and its own appeal route. If your dispute is about a property purchase, check which authority actually assessed it before writing to anyone. Stamp Duty Land Tax questions go to HMRC; an LBTT question does not.

Penalties in the UK tax system turn heavily on behaviour and on whether a disclosure was prompted or unprompted. Coming forward before HMRC opens a check usually produces a materially better outcome than being found. That is a legal judgment made on incomplete information, and it is one of the main reasons people take advice before replying to a first letter rather than after.

Where fraud is suspected, HMRC may offer the Code of Practice 9 contractual disclosure facility. Accepting or declining it is a decision with criminal as well as financial consequences and has a short deadline. Do not answer that letter without specialist advice, and do not assume an accountant who prepares the returns is the right person to advise on it, because their own position may be in issue.