Wrong assumption

For the tax year ended 5 April 2007 the taxpayer company’s form P35 was filed by its accountants using an online facility.

The company was not registered to do its own online filing and it was not mandatory for the firm to file online.

However HMRC argued that because the 2006/07 form P35 was filed online the department was entitled to assume the company would file future years’ end-of-year forms online and so paper forms were not sent to the appellant.

The company did not submit a 2007/08 form P35 on the grounds it could not return a form that it had not been sent.

HMRC issued a late filing penalty for the period 20 May to 19 September and a further penalty for the period 20 September to 5 December. The company appealed...