A Gatward v HMRC [2020] UKFTT 363 (TC) (14 September 2020) is a comparatively rare case of a tribunal accepting that a taxpayer had a reasonable excuse for late filing of a return. There seems to have been muddle all round: the taxpayer made several attempts to file but did not include all of the necessary supplementary pages while the HMRC staff on the helpline seem to have given less than clear instructions on what the taxpayer actually needed to do. On balance perhaps surprisingly the reasonable excuse defence was successful. The case breaks no new ground but shows that transcripts of calls with HMRC can sometime be helpful to a taxpayer’s argument.
E Paniec v The Director of Border Revenue [2020] UKFTT 360 (TC) (10 September) is a case about restoration of a trailer which had been seized because it...
