Plenty of time

HMRC issued notices on 6 March 2014 to compel the taxpayer to submit self assessment (SA) returns for the three years up to 5 April 2013. The submission date for each was 13 June 2014 under TMA 1970 s 8(1H).

The taxpayer filed the returns on 7 July 2014.  The Revenue imposed a late-filing penalty of £100 for each document.

The taxpayer appealed on the ground she had no SA income for any of the years and was required to complete the forms only because a query arose on her pension from which tax had been deducted at source. She said it was impossible for her to submit the returns in the timescale allowed.

The First-tier Tribunal disagreed she did not have enough time. HMRC had used their discretion to allow an extra seven days to file and “it was clearly possible for the appellant to submit...