SAOG20500 | Reasonable excuse: what is not a reasonable excuse

While the Customer Compliance Manager (CCM), Mid-sized Business Customer Compliance Resolution Team (CCRT) or Caseworker must consider all relevant circumstances, there are some situations which we will not normally accept alone as a reasonable excuse

• Pressure of work.

• Lack of information.

• HMRC did not remind me.

• Ignorance of basic law.

What is or is not a reasonable excuse is personal to the individual’s abilities and circumstances. Those abilities and circumstances may mean that what is a reasonable excuse for one person may not be a reasonable excuse for another.

The law specifies two situations that are not reasonable excuses. These are

• shortage of funds, see SAOG20600 for more detail and an exception, and

• reliance on another person, see SAOG20700 for more detail and an exception.

FA09/SCH46/PARA8 (2)(a) & (b)