This month's review of tax cases and tax news including late filing penalty appeals thrown out, Goldfinger confidant loses, payment made by LLP member not deductible in Vaines
Late filing penalty appeals thrown out
Taxpayers were victorious in nine out of 13 late filing cases brought by HMRC in February 2018, highlighting flaws in the penalty system through the unusually high win rate for appellants.
The First Tier Tribunal (FTT) deals with numerous appeals against late filing penalties. Most of the published decisions focus on whether the taxpayer had a reasonable excuse for their failure to file on time, with the majority of these decided in HMRC’s favour.
However, on 13 and 14 February, the FTT emailed out 13 late filing penalty decisions, with the taxpayer successful in nine of the cases. While FTT decisions are not binding, some interesting issues were raised which are worth highlighting and may be useful to others facing late filing penalties.
