Electronic mishap

In 2006 the taxpayer formed a company to organise car rallies in Europe. It was decided that the company would register for VAT once it had reached the VAT threshold which was likely to happen by March 2007.

In November 2006 the company director decided to complete the electronic version of the VAT registration form.

He thought it would take up to ten weeks to go through and wanted to ensure that it was in time.

Due to an input error and inexperience of the system by the company book-keeper the date included for registration was given as 29 November 2006: i.e. the date when taxable supplies were first made rather than 1 March 2007.

The system would not allow a date more than three months in advance of the one required.

HMRC said that the registration date could not be altered unless...