Reasonable excuse

The taxpayer business submitted its 2010/11 end-of-year employer return P35 on 4 April 2011. The firm’s parent company called the HMRC employer helpline in August to be informed that the document had not been received.

The taxpayer claimed said it received confirmation of receipt by the Revenue which later said its systems were being updated at the time the return had been sent (4 April) meaning there may have been a fault on the interface.

The taxpayer submitted the return successfully on 4 August and the taxman imposed a penalty for late filing.


The First-tier Tribunal found as a fact that HMRC’s computer system could accept an employer return on only a single occasion and the taxpayer’s form was not received before 4 August.

The tribunal also found that the cause of the taxpayer’s failure to file on 4 April was the department’s computer upgrade. It...