No information to support expenses claim

The taxpayer who was within the PAYE system included expense claims on his tax returns for each of the years 2016-17 to 2019-20 amounting to at least 50% of his earnings. When HMRC challenged these claims the taxpayer said he relied on his agent and did not review his tax returns. He was unable to say what the expenses related to and said that he had not provided any details to his accountant about them. HMRC disallowed the claims and imposed penalties for careless behaviour.

The taxpayer appealed.

The First-tier Tribunal concluded that the taxpayer had not been ‘ignorant’ of what was going on and could find no circumstances which would result in a special reduction. The judges said: ‘It is not enough for Mr Badjie to rely on his accountant even though it would appear that Mr Badjie did not in fact see the tax returns before...