Late filed forms

Penalties for late EC sales lists

The company was charged penalties of £500 and £780 for submitting late EC sales lists for September and December 2014. It appealed saying it had posted the returns before the due dates and as soon as it realised HMRC had not received them it resubmitted them.

The First-tier Tribunal said ‘the mere claim’ of posting the forms was not enough. It was the taxpayer’s responsibility to show the forms had been submitted in time. In this case the company provided no documentary evidence to prove they had been posted or that there were problems with the postal service. The tribunal said it was ‘highly improbable’ that the post ‘should fail to deliver on two consecutive occasions’.

The taxpayer’s claim that the penalty was ‘extortionate’ also failed. The penalties were not disproportionate particularly in view of the capping of the...