When HMRC penalties go wrong

KEY POINTS

• Think that computerisation will remove the scope for human error? Think again.
• The taxpayer corrects an error by amending a tax return.
• HMRC charges a penalty by reference to the wrong legislation.
• The First-tier Tribunal confirmed that the penalty was payable.
• The taxpayer was in fact out of time to make an amendment.

Whether we like it or not tax is complicated. For most people the complexity lies in determining how much tax should be paid in any given situation. However another area of increasing complexity is the underlying mechanics that determine how and when that tax should be paid. In the latter case one might expect the difficulties to be reduced in practice because this is something on which HMRC will have...