Excessive fine

Daily penalties for late land and buildings transaction tax return

The taxpayer bought land in Scotland and should have filed a land and buildings transaction tax return by 8 January 2016. She submitted one on paper in July; no tax was due. In October Revenue Scotland (RS) issued penalties. She appealed against these saying she had not realised the return was required. She had misinterpreted the guidance on RS’s website to mean that no return was necessary if no tax was due.

The taxpayer said she would have paid the initial £100 penalty immediately but RS did not issue the notice for three months by which time daily £10 penalties of £790 had accrued. She said these were excessive and it was as if RS had ‘purposely’ let the penalties accumulate.

The First-tier Tribunal for Scotland refused the appeal. RS could not have notified the taxpayer about...