Penalties stand

The taxpayer company appealed against late payment penalties imposed under FA 2009 sch 56 for 2012/13. It claimed reasonable excuse on the grounds of:

• financial economic and cash flow difficulties;
• HMRC had not made the business aware of the fine; and
• company employee changes.

The First-tier Tribunal said there was no reasonable excuse: the company had not shown it had insufficient funds each time it failed to make PAYE payments on time – and the firm had not proved there was any event over which it had no control that led to lack of funds.

The Revenue had warned the taxpayer about the risk of penalties – not that lack of a warning would be a reasonable excuse because “ignorance of the law was no defence” – and staff changes did not affect the company’s statutory...