Taxpayer’s evidence preferred

The taxpayer company appealed against a £22 735 penalty charged for failing to submit monthly PAYE payments on time in 2010/2011 for months one to nine and 11.

HMRC claimed the payments had been between two and five days late. Their evidence included pages of photocopies of the cheque for the PAYE tax for the relevant periods with “processing date” at the top of each page. Most cheques had their processing date falling between two and five days after the due date and were signed by the financial director of the taxpayer.

The Revenue presented the First-tier Tribunal with an internal record of a letter sent to the taxpayer warning that further late payments may incur a penalty. The company had paid late only once at this point.

The financial director said he was not aware of the letter. He demonstrated that he had a system in place...