There are innumerable occasions when a communication from HMRC sent by post is inordinately delayed and received several weeks after the date of the letter. Overseas clients often complain of receiving HMRC notices several weeks after the deadline has passed. The First-Tier Tribunal decided on an interesting case recently, involving a similar situation ([2011] UKFTT 799 (TC) TC01635 07 Dec 2011).
In this case HMRC wrote a letter of 29 March 2010 to the appellant telling him that it believed that he should be completing a tax return each year. The letter went on to say “We will let you know which tax return we want you to complete. At this point we will also tell you the date by which the completed tax return must be received by us.” HMRC then claimed that the appellant was sent another communication on 4 June 2010 advising the appellant of his obligations and that filing a return was necessary, followed by a reminder on 16 December to file your tax return. Theappellant confirmed receiving the letter of 29 March 2010 and the one of 16 December 2010 but denied having received any communication dated 4 June 2010. Accordingly a tax return was not filed for the year ended 05 April 2010 by the due date i.e. 31 January 2011.
The appellant’s case was that he had a reasonable excuse for not filing the return by 31 January 2011 because he had been expressly told by HMRC by its letter of 29 March 2010, that he would be told what kind of tax return he was required to complete. His case was that he never received that letter. If that was correct, he had a reasonable excuse for not making the filing because the respondent had expressly told him that it would provide him with specific information which, on the appellant’s case, it failed to do.
From the tenor of the appellant’s request for a review the tribunal was not persuaded to believe that the appellant was somebody who would resort to dishonesty over this comparatively minor matter. Accordingly, HMRC had to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that it did send out the claimed letter of 4 June 2010 to the appellant. In the tribunal’s view HMRC adduced no evidence or, at least, insufficient evidence, to make out that proposition. Therefore, the tribunal concluded that the appellant had a reasonable excuse for not filing the tax return by the due date.
