CIS Late Submission Penalties

CIS Late Submission Penalties

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A client kept his head in the sand too long - and submitted his first few months of CIS retutrns late last year and got penalties which have only just come to light

As a sole trade he can little afford a penalty at all - let alone £1,300 for not getting anything in until November last year (7 months were 2 months late, 1 was 1 month late)

Understanding the rules etc, but ......

Has anyone any experience of an argument that HMRC will listen to which would get these penalties down to a more acceptable level (or preferebly zero) ?
Stevie

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By User deleted
04th Sep 2008 17:01

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Hey Stevie
Is there absolutely no reasonable excuse?
If you send me your email address, I'll tell what we did (which worked in our case) but no guarantee of course.
Sorry to others. We may have an extremelly understanding inspector and I don't want to get them in trouble if they have been "too lenient" on us. We have a good relationship with them at present so don't want to spoil it).

One thing though; we ALWAYS go on facts of the case. We don't try to deceive or be sneeky. Just straight out honest.
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By yorsolution
03rd Sep 2008 22:52

How did you do it?
Paul

Can I ask you what sort of arguements you've been able to use to get penalties reduced or revoked?

We tried appealing against one recently where a NIL return was forgotten and was sent late, but when that wasn't accepted the client decided just to pay it rather than spend time and money challenging it further. Of course £1300 is a bit differnt from £100 and more worth the hassle.

I'd be interested to know what you've managed to argue and whether it's been accepted first time or taken several goes.

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By User deleted
03rd Sep 2008 16:04

Wasnt listening
a simple enough story - he ignored the filing requests until the October deadline passed and he got the first round of penalties through

Then he started getting the information together. He was used to only filing annually

I think he didnt think they were being serious - it did the trick in that he files every month now

A letter was sent in apologising but the answer was without a reasonable excuse there was no reason to adjust

If the aim was to frighten people into filing then it worked on him at least !

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By User deleted
03rd Sep 2008 15:39

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Hey Stevie
We have had almost 100% success dealing with HMRC (so far) on CIS penalties and have used a couple of different approaches, but it depends on facts of the case.

Sorry - but a few questions:

You say that penalties have only just come to light. Do you mean the client has only just told you about them, or that the revenue have only just asked for the money? Are the returns correct? Is the penalty technically correct?

Why were they late? Illness? Complete misunderstanding the law? Laziness? Client thought someone else was doing them? Other..?

I would not expect a reduction to zero, but a negotiation might be possible depending on facts.

Let us know the answers, and we might be able to help a bit more..

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