Pandemic was not a reasonable excuse for a late payment

The company submitted late VAT returns and payments for periods to July and October 2020. HMRC issued it a surcharge liability notice for the first period. The result of that was that all payments had to be made on time for the next 12 months to avoid a default surcharge. For the October 2020 period the 2% penalty was less than the £400 de minimis threshold so a zero penalty was applicable. However HMRC received the January 2021 payment on Monday 8 March - one day late - resulting in a 5% surcharge of £2 281. The taxpayer appealed.

The taxpayer said a faster payment had been made on Friday 5 March but provided no evidence to the First-tier Tribunal about why it had taken three days to reach HMRC. So there was no potential reasonable excuse here such as an error by the...