Peter Vaines reports on the latest news from the world of tax
- What is a reasonable excuse for not paying tax on time?
- If the owner of shares dies before making a claim for income tax relief under s 131 of the Income Tax Act 2007, can the claim be made by his executors?
- Revisiting the text for employee expenses.
- What is to become of the Finance Bill?
I am always on the lookout for reasonable excuses (you never know when you might need one) and there have been two conflicting cases decided recently.
In Crossley v HMRC TC 5535 the taxpayer managed to persuade the Tribunal that he had a reasonable excuse for not paying his tax on time because he did not have the money. That was a seriously impressive success because Sch 56(16) of the Finance Act 2009 specifically states: ‘An insufficiency of funds is not a reasonable excuse, unless attributable to events outside the person’s control.’
The facts were interesting—but it just goes to show that the words ‘attributable to events outside the person’s control’ can interpreted very sympathetically
