Westbeach Apparel UK Ltd v HMRC

In Westbeach Apparel UK Ltd v HMRC (TC01406 – 10 October) a company (W) delegated the submission of its 2009/10 P35 to a payroll agent who attempted to submit the return online on 13 May 2010 but failed to remove the tick from the box marked ‘test submission’.

HMRC imposed a penalty and the company appealed contending that it had a reasonable excuse.

The First-tier Tribunal dismissed W’s appeal finding that the payroll agent had ‘sent the return as a test submission on 13 May 2010 and that a live submission was not made until 20 October 2010’.

Judge Staker accepted HMRC’s evidence that ‘HMRC’s own system does not have a “test” facility but that many commercial software packages do and that the operator has to actively access the “test” mode and that the screen clearly shows...