In Fitzpatrick & Co (Solicitors) v HMRC (TC01932 – 19 April) a firm of solicitors submitted its partners’ returns electronically in January 2011 and attached a PDF file with the partnership return. HMRC formed the opinion that the submission of an electronic PDF did not comply with the notice given under TMA 1970 s 12AA and imposed penalties under TMA 1970 s 93A. The First-tier Tribunal allowed the firm’s appeal. Judge Hellier held that ‘the documents produced by HMRC do not prescribe the use of third-party software as the only way to make an electronic return. The best that can be said is that they prescribe the making of a return via the internet as constituting an electronic return’. Accordingly the PDF which the firm had submitted ‘was an electronic return for the purpose of section 12AA’.
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