Challenging HMRC’s ruling on deliberate behaviour

Key points

• The Faux Properties case concerned a penalty for a deliberate inaccuracy.
• A delay in providing information to HMRC.
• Penalties for deliberate behaviour cannot be suspended.
• A deliberate inaccuracy may mean the ‘managing serious defaulters’ programme will apply.
• The term deliberate means done with a set purpose to produce an inaccuracy.
• Has HMRC discharged the burden of proof required to show that the inaccuracy was deliberate?
• Underlying facts can help to show whether behaviour was careless or deliberate.

Have you ever been overcome in the middle of a book by the need to know whether it will end well or badly? Are you tempted to take a peek at the last page maybe intending to give up if it’s unhappy? You might feel the same when embarking on an argument with HMRC. Will the time effort and expense be worth it? There is usually no way to skip ahead to the conclusion but a...