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..