The UK tax authority HMRC has issued a statement following press reports that it was not pursuing penalties for late filing of income tax returns in the case of more than 800,000 individuals in the UK.
The statement from HMRC indicates that it has a proportional approach to appeals against penalties and in particular those involving individuals and small businesses. HMRC states that it aims to focus its resources on the investigation of major tax avoidance and tax evasion rather than on taxpayers who are aiming to comply with the legislation.
However the deadline for submitting appeals against fines for the 2013/14 tax year has now passed and those individuals who have already submitted an appeal can only be excused from the GBP 100 fine if they have submitted their tax return, paid the tax due, appealed against the late filing penalty and have given a good reason for late submission of the tax return.
HMRC aims in the longer term to move away from sending out penalty notices in response to a single missed deadline. Improvements to procedures resulting from the use of digital technology will enable HMRC to track patterns of non-compliant behavior and allow them to focus on taxpayers who are persistently failing to file their returns on time or pay their tax.
