EM5170 | Penalties: Culpability - Defences: Failure to Make a Return

A customer may claim that they did not make the return on time because

• their affairs were too complicated to be able to complete the return in time

• they were let down by their accountant, in whom they had implicit trust

• of illness, absence or family problems

• they were too busy running the business

• the records were lost preventing calculation of the correct figures

• they had completed the form as far as possible and that the rest of the information would follow as soon as they had time or could obtain the required particulars

• the delays were shorter than those of HMRC

• the missing information had already been supplied in some other context.

See CH160000 for further guidance on what may be deemed as ‘reasonable excuse’.