Peter Vaines recounts a tale of appeals out of time
The case of R Legg TC/2010/04462 indicates that it is generally not in your interests to ignore communications from HMRC. No surprise there—but this will make your hair stand on end.
Mr Legg was contacted by HMRC who suggested that he was party to a bank account which had been credited with £3,000 interest. Mr Legg ignored it. How much tax do you think HMRC could possibly charge as a result? How about £275,000. You may laugh—and although Mr Legg thought this was a joke and “was waiting for Jeremy Beadle to appear” he should have done something because the result was a statutory demand to make him bankrupt. He made an application to the Tribunal to appeal out of time but they said: “It is not in the public interest for this matter to proceed; the amount of tax is large and an early resolution of the matter and the payment of the tax is now appropriate”.
How on earth do HMRC get to a figure of tax of £275,000 as a result
