EM5170 - Penalties: Culpability - Defences: Failure to Make a Return

A taxpayer may claim that they did not make the return on time because

• their affairs were too complicated to be able to complete the return in time
• they were let down by their accountant, in whom they had implicit trust
• of illness, absence or family problems
• they were too busy running the business
• the records were lost preventing calculation of the correct figures
• they had completed the form as far as possible and that the rest of the information would follow as soon as they had time or could obtain the required particulars
• the delays were shorter than those of HMRC
• the missing information had already been supplied in some other context.

See EM5152 for further guidance on what may be deemed as ‘reasonable excuse’.