Carrot and stick

We used to act for a client who was habitually late regarding his tax affairs but with some effort we kept him on the straight and narrow.

Last year he dispensed with our services telling us that he was going to prepare his own tax return from then on.

He recently posted through our letterbox notification of daily penalties relating to the late submission of his 2011/12 tax return with a post-it note attached saying ‘help’.

I am loath to get too involved in this but my interest was taken because the penalty charge was for the maximum amount of £900 and seemed to be dated the middle of July.

I am expecting the ex-client to get in touch and ask me to explain the penalty charge but I am wondering how this can have arisen at this stage.

My understanding was that daily charges...