Action deferred

HMRC charged a husband and wife interest on unpaid income tax for the year 2009/10. The couple appealed saying they had applied to the department for a time-to-pay arrangement which would make the funds available to pay the tax due on the planned sale of their company.

The couple said the Revenue had deferred further action which they assumed meant their application for time-to-pay had been accepted.

The First-tier Tribunal noted that the taxpayers’ excuse was not that they were unable to pay the tax but they had a “reasonable expectation that HMRC would clearly and unequivocally respond to the repeated applications for time to pay under [FA 2009 ] s 108”.

It seemed to the judge that the applications were passed from office to office without a final decision being communicated to the taxpayers.

He decided that in light of the correspondence between the...