HMRC's estimates of the number of businesses who are able to submit their VAT returns directly by using third party software are inexact, but it seems that the vast majority (somewhere between 87-92% of businesses) submit their VAT via HMRC's portal. The main problem being difficult adjustments required and/or the need to combine data from several sources.
SME Tax News
In Tabrez Akhtar t/a Crawley News and Post Office v HMRC [2017] TC6078 late filing penalties were dismissed: HMRC had unlogged a return in error.
In Darren Billington v HMRC [2017] TC06147 the FTT dismissed a late application to lodge an appeal against penalties raised for failure to act on an information notice: there was excessive delay and an insufficient excuse for the underlying failure.
In Whittaker v Concept Fiduciaries Ltd, Guernsey Judgment 15/2017, Guernsey’s Royal Court considered the UK rules on rectification of advisers' errors in setting up a trust.
Pilots working for Ryanair have been under tax enquiries from both the UK and German tax authorities.
HMRC have merged the two numbers previously used for tax evasion, and customs fraud, into one number as part of their efforts to streamline intelligence gathering on tax fraud.
As part of HMRC’s approach to dealing with the new offence of Criminal Facilitation of Tax Evasion, it has given details of how an organisation can self-report any such offence discovered.
The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has issued a ‘future work programme’ identifying areas that it will address in the short term, the next 12 months and in the medium term.
In Rachel McGreevy v HMRC [2017] TC06109 penalties for a late non-resident capital gains tax return were cancelled; no disposal was proved in the relevant tax year, the taxpayer had a reasonable excuse or special circumstances.
In M Watts v Revenue Scotland [2017] FTSTC 1 the Scottish tax tribunal upheld penalties of £890 for a late LBTT return despite no tax being due; ignorance of the law was no excuse for the self-represented tax payer.