Taxpayer’s misplaced belief was no excuse

The taxpayer had been in self assessment since 2002. He said that ‘at some point in 2015 2016 or 2017’ HMRC informed him that he did not need to complete a tax return. He took this to mean that he never had to fill in a tax return again even if he had a liability to tax in later years. He assumed that any future tax liability would be dealt with by his employer through PAYE.

In 2021 HMRC opened an enquiry in relation to rental income the taxpayer received. After lengthy correspondence HMRC issued assessments and penalties for failure to notify.

The taxpayer appealed saying he had a reasonable excuse because HMRC had told him he no longer needed to fill in tax returns.

The First-tier Tribunal did not accept it was ‘objectively reasonable’ for the taxpayer to...