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On 27 March, the taxpayer paid tax that had been due on 31 January. He incurred a late payment surcharge of 5%, to which he reponsed by claiming he had reasonable excuse: his bank had failed to make the transfer of funds he requested to enable him to settle his tax bill.
The taxpayer said he had adequate money to pay HMRC, but the bank had not carried out his instruction. The Revenue expressed sympathy but said the situation did not amount to a reasonable excuse.
The First-tier Tribunal agreed with the taxman that a ‘responsible person who was taking his payment obligations seriously’ should have organised his finances so that tax could be paid on time.
The actions of the bank were to some extent within the taxpayer’s control; he should have made more effort to ensure the funds were transferred.
The taxpayer’s appeal was dismissed.
