A client has received in January 2012 a £400 penalty for late submission of the P11D for the year ended 5 April 2007. He is rather upset about this!
The P11D's were done by his previous adviser. I am trying to establish exactly what has happened but as it was some time ago I think it will be difficult to prove now that they were filed on time (if indeed they were). I certainly wouldn't expect there still to be proof of postage.
So, can HMRC wait so long before issuing a penalty? And is it reasonable to appeal of the basis that because they have waited so long to issue the penalty our client cannot provide the usual evidence to show it was submitted on time?
Replies (2)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
Reasonable excuse
APPEAL.....HMRC are losing lots of these cases at tribunal for many reasons see TC1358 Ponteberem RFC where he simply forgot to press the submit button. Also HMRC have been slated for "using the penalty system as a cash generating scheme" for waiting four months before issuing the first penalty the tribunal found that " HMRC had neither acted fairly or in good conscience" by not issuing a penalty after one month
If your client has reasonably assumed that his advisor has submitted the returns and he has paid him for the service he has a reasonable excuse
Also check out TC1631 Same old scenario HMRC claim P35 received late and issue a fine. The tribunal judge concluded that the HMRC recording system was unreliable so they could not prove it was late s