Ignorance of the law is an excuse

The taxpayer was a PAYE taxpayer and received child benefit from 2005 to 2019. As her earnings were below £50 000 when the high income child benefit charge (HICBC) was introduced she paid no attention to the information about it.

In November 2019 HMRC sent the taxpayer a nudge letter asking her to check if she was liable to the charge in 2017-18 and earlier years. A month later it sent her a final reminder letter and in response she called HMRC. The officer told her the reminder letter could be an error but the most important thing was to deregister for child benefit. He did not tell her she needed to complete a self-assessment return or take further steps to notify her liability – so she did neither. At the First-tier Tribunal hearing HMRC disputed that this phone call took place however...