Graham Elliott, VAT expert at City & Cambridge Consultancy considers missed direct debit and default surcharge in Spiral Packs case, Mercedes beats HMRc over agile car leases, liability of pension fund management
Missed direct debit and default surcharge in Spiral
The tribunal decision in Spiral Packs (TC06088) concerns a default surcharge levied by HMRC in a case of a late payment of VAT where the appellant erroneously thought that a direct debit would cover the payment, whereas it was supposed to be paid by Bacs. The point only arises because HMRC allows a further three days for direct debit payments over Bacs payments. The appellant spotted the error too late to be on time for the Bacs deadline, but paid via Bacs on the deadline applicable to direct debits. HMRC accepted that had a direct debit been in place, it would have received the tax at the same time that it actually did, via Bacs. The surcharge was £16,213.
