Access to self assessment on government gateway

The taxpayer appealed against a six-month late filing penalty for failing to submit a self-assessment tax return.

He said HMRC sent him a notice to submit an ‘online self-assessment review’ and he completed an online form in March 2020. He said he had never been self-employed but paid all taxes through PAYE until he became unemployed in 2020. He considered he had been the victim of an online transmission error which had been rectified when he had filed his return. He asked for penalties to be removed as he was being ‘punished for poor IT systems’.

HMRC said it send him a notice to file a return because his income exceeded £100 000. The deadline for submission had been 31 January 2020 but it was filed 11 months late. Further he could not have submitted the return online in March 2020 because although he had a government gateway account...