Good try

The appellant appealed against the withdrawal of his gross payment status. He did not attend the First-tier Tribunal hearing because of financial reasons.

HMRC claimed that the taxpayer had failed to meet the compliance test for the construction industry scheme on the basis that he had paid his self-assessment surcharge payments late.

The taxpayer stated that he could not pay the surcharges due to severe cash-flow problems due to a 20% construction industry scheme tax being deducted from payments made to him.

This was while he still had to make payments to HMRC of amounts deducted from payments to his own subcontractors.

This situation worsened when the appellant’s business had a doubling in turnover between 2008 and 2009. In addition the appellant had signed a time-to-pay arrangement with HMRC.

HMRC felt there was no reasonable excuse for...