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HMRC have acknowledged that some existing partnerships may not yet have received unique taxpayer references (UTR) for new partners who need to submit a partnership return.
Some new partners who expect to file their individual tax return by 31 January 2011 because they have other income also may not yet have the partnership UTR.
This will affect partners and partnerships who:
- choose to file a paper tax return and applied for a UTR in plenty of time to meet the 31 October deadline, but did not receive it in time;
- must file paper returns because the circumstances fall within the HMRC list of 'specials and exclusions' and the Revenue has agreed the taxpayer will be unable to file online but have until 31 January 2011 to file a paper return;
- file online and expect to do this by 31 January but are still waiting for UTRs.
Advisers with clients to whom this applies should file the relevant tax return as soon as the client receives the UTR and make a claim to ‘reasonable excuse’ if the return is late because of the delay in receiving the reference.
Taxpayers in this position who claim reasonable excuse should give details of the dates when the UTR was requested, when it was received and when they filed their completed return.
HMRC say they will consider each case on its merits and that where they received the complete return without any unnecessary delay after the taxpayer received the UTR, the claim will be treated sympathetically.
Where there is time to prevent it, HMRC will not send out a penalty notice.
