High income child benefit charge and reasonable excuse

Key points

• Short tax returns did not include the high income child benefit charge.
• Discovery assessments made for 2015-16 and 2016-17 and a closure notice for 2017-18.
• The child benefit was paid to the wife of a soldier serving abroad.
• The reasonable excuse defence.
• Can ignorance of the law ever be an excuse?
• Was HMRC’s publicity of the high income child benefit charge effective?
• Why did the Cooke case not fall within HMRC’s previously announced review of failure to notify penalties relating to the child benefit charge?

I have some disquiet on reading the decision of the First-tier Tribunal in Graham Cooke (TC7819). I suspect largely because I do not understand how the case turned into a question of reasonable excuse when HMRC had apparently already indicated a willingness to address the issue in question. I suspect that Judge Rankin was equating reasonable excuse with failure to take reasonable care ...