In A Salazar v HMRC [2019] UKFTT 614 (7 October 2019) the FTT found that a penalty assessment was flawed and that the taxpayer had a reasonable excuse in any event.
Ms Salazar ran a Spanish teaching café through her company Spanish and Coffee. HMRC issued a penalty notice under TMA 1970 s 100(3) for non-compliance with the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations Regs 84E and 84F which require employment intermediaries to provide HMRC with information about certain workers.
Rather unusually the FTT had to determine whether HMRC was claiming the penalty from Ms Salazar or from her company as the officers who had dealt with the case were ‘divided’. As HMRC’s statement of case was aimed at Ms Salazar the FTT considered that the penalty was claimed from her.
The FTT then had to decide whether Ms Salazar was an ‘employment intermediary’ as defined in the regulations....
