Too vague

Whether penalties were properly notified

The taxpayer and his wife were in business as a partnership. The appeal concerned the 2012-13 partnership return. The taxpayer said it had been filed on paper before the 31 October 2013 deadline and suggested that HMRC had mislaid it. HMRC said the return was not filed until mid-January 2015 and imposed late filing penalties.

The First-tier Tribunal decided ‘on balance’ that the return had not been submitted by 31 October 2013 but accepted it had been sent in January 2015. However on the daily penalties the judge said the pro forma daily penalty reminder notice (SA372-30) referred to ‘your tax return’ rather than the partnership return and included an incorrect unique tax reference.

Further HMRC produced no evidence to show that it had sent other reminders to the taxpayer and in any event these did not specify the date...