Fine for late return of Corporation tax form - could a claim be made?

BirdG

Totally support reclaiming unfair bank charges. However, this has got me thinking - my husband is a one man band with a Limited Company. He doesn't have a huge turnover at all. Last year, he forgot (and it was a genuine mistake) to return his Corporation Tax return. The actual return was NIL. However, because this return was late he was fined £1000 - money we did not have. Inevitably we had to borrow the money on our credit cards to pay the fine.

Reading about bank charges being unfair and disproportionate - I feel the same about this fine. Had his return been for £50,000 and he had not returned it on time it would have been the same fine. I appreciate that the form should have been submitted, but as the actual return was NIL I feel the fine was unfair.

Does anybody know if I can challenge this and more importantly whether I have a fair chance of getting all or some of the money back. We are still paying the money borrowed on our credit cards to pay this and interest.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Many thanks.

digp

That is not reclaimable in the civil courts as such.

Unfortunately, the morons in Parliament (theres lots of them) have passed laws allowing the morons at the Inland Revenue to do this. Speak to a tax specialist or chartered accountant / write to the head of the dept. / your MP / Gordon Brown (do you want his email address?) / etc. and complain

Alfie_E

They’re rather different situations. Banks are in trouble for not playing by the rules set by the government. When it comes to the government doing something, in general, it sets the rules the so it can do whatever it wants. The government could paraphrase Judge Dredd, and say,“We are the law.” It’s also incredibly difficulty to sue a government, even when it has done something egregious.

It’s only in recent times that there has been any higher recourse. Other than being voted out, it’s only really the European courts or legislations that tend to put a dampener on what the government might otherwise want to do.