Series of blows

A self-employed plastering contractor held gross payment status under the construction industry scheme. An HMRC review found he had made several late payments of PAYE tax as well as being tardy in paying his own self assessment tax.

He said his young daughter had died suddenly in 2011 one of the companies for which he worked had gone insolvent owing him money and another customer had not paid for an extension the taxpayer had worked on – which led to the bank halving his overdraft facility.

The taxpayer and his wife called the Revenue’s business support service several times to discuss the tax payments due but received no help. He later entered an individual voluntary arrangement.

HMRC said insufficiency of funds was not an excuse and withdrew gross payment status. The department claimed it was not possible for it to consider the consequences for...