Reasonable excuse – VAT

It can sometimes be worthwhile appealing to the First Tribunal…

A taxpayer had been late three times paying his VAT and HMRC imposed a default surcharge. He appealed claiming reasonable excuse as his agent had repeatedly phoned HMRC to set up a time to pay arrangement before payment was due, but the calls were never answered.

The taxpayer argued that the problems calling HMRC were unexpected and unforeseeable. HMRC argued that they were not.

The tribunal rejected their claim!