Unreasonable fine

Late filing penalties

The taxpayer was in a partnership that closed in June 2010. She had been in self assessment since 2002-03. Despite receiving a notice to file a return for 2010-11 and other reminders the taxpayer did not send the return until December 2012. She sent a paper return in October but forgot to sign it so HMRC did not accept it. In the meantime HMRC issued late filing penalties including daily penalties. The taxpayer appealed saying she had a reasonable excuse and special circumstances for the delay.

The First-tier Tribunal said the taxpayer could be ‘reasonably’ expected to have known about her self assessment obligations since she had filed returns since 2002-03. Despite information and reminders from HMRC she had not acted on them. Further although she said the other partner was responsible for administration and accounts this was not relevant since...