SA Penalty

SA Penalty

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I would appreciate any help as I find HMRC penalties so confusing and I don't want to say the wrong thing to them.

I have a client who I first had contact with in January this year. Before that he did his own tax!

He somehow managed to file his 2012/2013 tax return online under the 2013/2014 year. He filed it late, in August 2014 so accepts a £100 penalty but filed it before £1200 of daily and 6 mth penalties were added in September 2014.

He left it until March 2015 to ask me to sort out the penalties with HMRC. He says that he explained the mix up on the phone to HMRC and that they said they would cancel the penalty. Unfortunately, he didn't note this conversation with HMRC and so I don't know the date of it.

HMRC have written to me to say that the penalty stands as we did not appeal the penalty notice within 30 days, presumably in October 2014. I now have 30 days to appeal with a reasonable excuse.

Is there any way around this penalty of £1200? Does it hinge on the date that my client spoke to HMRC and they verbally told him the penalty would be cancelled?

Any help very gratefully received. Many thanks

Replies (1)

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By SteveHa
07th Jul 2015 16:51

Do it in writing

Send a written appeal citing whatever his original late reason was as reasonable excuse. Supplement it with the account of his conversation with HMRC. Keep it professional.

 

HMRC are changing the way they deal with penalties, and are considering historical compliance (possibly across taxes), ability and knowledge of the individual etc. rather than the one size fits all approach that they have taken historically.

 

There's every chance that they'll cancel with their new found "understanding".

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