Lack of awareness of the high income child benefit charge is not the test

In February 2018 HMRC sent a high income child benefit charge nudge letter to the taxpayer. He realised he was liable to the charge and contacted HMRC to provide information. It issued assessments for 2012-13 to 2016-17 which the taxpayer paid. HMRC also imposed a penalty calculated at 20% of the tax due – the range is between 10% and 30%.

The taxpayer appealed against the penalty. He said had reasonable excuse. He had been employed throughout and any underpayments of tax were collected through his PAYE code. No one at HMRC mentioned the high income child benefit charge might apply to him. Further his partner had been receiving child benefit since 1998 but no communications with the child benefit agency had warned them about the charge. On whether he had received the generic SA252 letter sent by HMRC to taxpayers who might be affected by the charge the...