This week's opinion

The question of fixed penalties for failure to file tax returns when no tax is payable continues to concern me. I was discussing this with a well-known individual in the tax world only last week and his view was the same as mine. There ought to be some initial penalty for failure to file but any subsequent penalties should not be charged when no tax is due.

A new angle to this crops up in McGreevy (TC6109) which was an appeal against a penalty for failing to submit a non-resident capital gains tax return even though no tax was payable. There is a 30-day time limit for such returns. In a coruscating judgment Richard Thomas attacked the logic of the regime the drafting of the legislation and the way in which the penalties were implemented by HMRC. The following extract gives a flavour of his approach:

‘The...