HMRC’s failure to address all grounds of appeal

The taxpayer appealed against late filing penalties for failing to submit her 2015-16 self-assessment tax return on time (FA 2009 Sch 55). HMRC later withdrew the daily penalties so the appeal was allowed in that respect.

The grounds of the taxpayer’s appeal were that she did not receive the first penalty because she was not living at the address to which it was sent. She had not changed her address because her parents still lived there. After contacting HMRC about the penalty she agreed the payment would be taken from her monthly pay but she later discovered the penalties were still being charged.

She appealed direct to the First-tier Tribunal bypassing HMRC. The tribunal noted that HMRC had asked ‘pragmatically and in the interests of cost effectiveness and efficiency’ for the appeal to be dealt with as if the taxpayer had appealed to it first.

The judge said...