Penalty notices and importance of evidence

HMRC imposed several penalties on the taxpayer for non-payment of tax but claimed that he had not received the notices. The taxpayer appealed saying he did not receive the penalty notices.

The First-tier Tribunal said HMRC had to show it had sent the penalties. Here the key word was ‘adequate’. The question was not whether there ‘could or should have been better evidence in support of the process whereby penalty notices are generated and posted’ rather it was whether HMRC could provide evidence that was ‘good enough’. The tribunal was satisfied that the evidence produced were ‘to the appropriate standard’ showing HMRC had directed the production of the penalty notices and they were correctly addressed stamped and posted.

It was now for the taxpayer to displace that presumption. In effect he had to prove a negative. The tribunal described his evidence as ‘not credible’. Other correspondence...