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I recently wrote to H M Customs and Excise Regional Business Services North VAT Enquiries regarding the date a VAT return would be deemed to have been received when the due date fell on a weekend. The example I quoted was for a May 2001 VAT return posted first class on Friday 29 June. The return was due by 30 June 2001, which fell on a Saturday. I have received a written reply that if this return was posted on Friday 29 June 2001, it would be received at their offices on Monday 2 July and therefore the return would be considered late.
I recently wrote to H M Customs and Excise Regional Business Services North VAT Enquiries regarding the date a VAT return would be deemed to have been received when the due date fell on a weekend. The example I quoted was for a May 2001 VAT return posted first class on Friday 29 June. The return was due by 30 June 2001, which fell on a Saturday. I have received a written reply that if this return was posted on Friday 29 June 2001, it would be received at their offices on Monday 2 July and therefore the return would be considered late.
As Tolley's Value Added Tax Manual states in chapter 52, I was under the impression that where the due date falls on a weekend or bank holiday, Customs would accept the return and the VAT due as received in time if received the next following working day. I have noted the various case law relating to the meaning of 'received' but would be interested to hear if any other readers have noticed a similar unco-operative approach from Customs.
(Query T15,875) – A.C.W.
I do not know of any recent problems on this point but have the following comments.
At page 2 of The Tax Journal for 21 March 1991, Customs stated that a return will be accepted as posted on time if posted at least one working day before the due date (assuming that it was sent by first class post or in the official envelope). They went on to say that where the due date falls on a weekend or bank holiday, the return and the VAT due will be accepted as received on time if received on the next following working day (STI 1991, p 389).
Despite this comment, tribunals continued to uphold default surcharge assessments where the returns had been posted one day before the due date. However, in Halstead Motor Co [1995] VATDR201 (13373) the tribunal held that, by posting a return before the last collection on Friday, the company had dispatched the return in a manner such that it would be delivered on Saturday and received by Customs within the appropriate time limit. This decision was applied in a similar case in 1998. These decisions have not been challenged by Customs.
Paragraph 9.6 of Notice 700 (The VAT Guide) states 'You must send in your VAT return and any payment due, to arrive by the due date shown on the return'. More helpfully paragraph 1.3 of Notice 700/50/97 (Default Surcharge) states 'You are advised to post your return and payment of any tax due by first class mail ..., not later than the day before the due date'.
From the above comments, the views of 'A.C.W.' are supported by good authority. It is a pity that Customs do not make a categorical statement in an official document to avoid their staff giving incorrect replies. – R.N.G.
Many many years ago, I raised this query and was informed in writing by a senior official at Customs' headquarters that returns received on the next working day after a due date on a weekend or a bank holiday would be accepted as being on time. I publicised this policy on various occasions in articles, etc. and I have subsequently seen it referred to in at least one reference book, which may well have been Tolley's.
However, I have been unable to find a reference to it in Customs' internal instructions. This may be due to an inadequate search but is equally likely to be due to omission as a point specific only to the handling of returns at Southend.
I suggest the querist refers this reply to the writer of the letter asking for confirmation that Southend has indeed changed its policy and, if so, on what date and on whose authority. I suspect that this is a mistake by the Enquiries Centre, if only because I deliberately use the policy for my own returns as one way of making sure that it is still being applied. If the policy has indeed changed, please would the querist forward the correspondence either to myself, to Peter Bickley, secretary to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales VAT committee, or to his own professional body with a request that the matter be taken up with Customs. – A St John Price.
