2000/2001 Self Assessment Return First Fixed Late-Filing Penalty

First Fixed Late-Filing Penalty notices are usually issued around the beginning of March. (In Working Together Issue 8 the date of issue for this year is given as 27 February "subject to change after this article went to print".)

Last year agents raised several concerns about penalty notices and (rightly) criticised us for the number of incorrect/inappropriate penalty notices issued. (See Working Together Issues 7 "31 January Filing Date" and 8 "First Fixed Rate Penalty Notices".) The main concerns were about penalty notices issued in error and penalty notices that were correctly issued but were subsequently "capped" (because the tax due was nil or less than £100). In the light of those concerns we have deferred the computer run for issuing the notices for two months while we consider the accuracy of our logging this year. We will now issue the notices on 26 April.

This deferral should also allow some late Returns for the "no tax due" cases to be processed so that "nil penalty" notices are issued rather than £100 notices.

This year we have been trying to identify the causes of errors and have worked hard to reduce the number of incorrect/inappropriate penalty notices issued. We believe we have succeeded in reducing the errors made on logging. But we still have some problems with the information on our database. We have therefore changed the wording on the penalty notice to suggest that people who do not understand why they have been sent a penalty notice should contact us by telephone.

To help you deal with clients who receive penalty notices that they think are wrong, we are providing the following guidance covering three particular situations. Generally we should be able to put the matter right if you contact the relevant Tax Office by telephone and explain the circumstances. It will not be possible, however, to put the matter right in time for the issue of the SA statements in May.

Cases where a Return was filed on time but we did not log it, or logged it as received on the wrong date.

Tell us the date the Return was sent to the Revenue and the Office to which it was delivered.
We will check the date the Return was stamped by the Office as received and compare it with the date the computer system shows the Return logged as received.
Where the date the Return was stamped as received is no later than 1 February we will cancel the penalty.
Where the date the Return was stamped as received is the same as the date the computer system shows the Return logged as received we will be unable to agree the Return was logged incorrectly.

Cases where duplicate Returns were issued to a taxpayer and only one Return has been filed.

Tell us the reference numbers for both Returns.
Tell us which of the Returns was filed and the Office to which it was delivered.
We will check the details on both computer records. Where we are able to confirm that a Return was filed on time and that a duplicate record exists, we will close the duplicate record and cancel the penalty.

Cases where a Return was issued to someone who had ceased self-employment and for whom a Return is no longer required but, although we were told in time, we did not set the appropriate signal on the computer to stop the issue of the Return.

Give us full details of the information in a previous year's Return or letter etc that advised us that self-employment had ceased and tell us why you consider a Return is no longer required.
We will check that this information was held when we issued the Return. (Please note, it may not be possible to do this immediately where the information is not to hand.)
Where we are able to confirm that the necessary information about cessation of self-employment was received before we issued the Return and that a Return was not appropriate, we will close the record and cancel the penalty.

We hope this guidance will enable us to resolve the great majority of such cases speedily and with the minimum of fuss. We will consider claims under the new C/FS 'Complaints and putting things right' for any reasonable costs that your clients have had to pay as a result of our mistake or any unreasonable delay in putting it right.

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