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Reasonable excuse for failing to comply with information notices

22 March 2020
Issue: 4737 / Categories: Tax cases
R Butcher (TC7596)

The taxpayer was a technical services consultant. HMRC opened enquiries into his returns for the years 2014-15 to 2016-17. It sent him an information notice (FA 2008 Sch 36) requiring 84 documents by a specified date. The taxpayer called HMRC to say he would be unable to send all the papers in time because he needed to request some of them from third parties. HMRC told him to send what he could try obtain the others and that he would not be penalised if he did these things.

A few days before the deadline the taxpayer sent HMRC the documents. However he had redacted sections on most of the bank statements and some others were blank. He explained that he wished to conceal some private information which he believed to be of no interest to HMRC.

The department imposed a penalty against which the taxpayer appealed.

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