If you are one of the 850,000 UK tax payers who recently received a late filing penalty notice for 2011/12, you may feel that you have a reasonable excuse for not having met the deadline.

HMRC has its own definition for what constitutes a ‘reasonable excuse’ giving the following main examples:

• a failure in the HMRC computer system
• a serious illness, disability or serious mental health condition has made you incapable of filing your return
• your computer breaks down just before or during the preparation of your online return
• you registered for HMRC Online Services but didn’t get your Activation Code in time

The penalties are treated on a case by case basis and remember to print or make a note of any error message details. The form for making a claim for late filing is found here and must be submitted within 30 days of receiving a late filing penalty.

If you’d like to discuss your situation with an experienced tax adviser, Helen Sewell can be contacted at [email protected] or call Helen on 01527 558539..