Do you have a reasonable excuse for paying your tax late and is not being able to access your bank account sufficient?

In light of the recent issues with TSB Bank, the Guardian have reported that HMRC will take into account the tax payer’s lack of ability to access their funds in order to pay tax that is due. Hopefully this will prove to be true in practice.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/26/tsb-drafts-in-ibm-team-to-end-it-meltdown

What is a “reasonable excuse” for failing to either file your tax return on time or paying tax that you owe?

https://www.gov.uk/tax-appeals/reasonable-excuses

This explains what might count as a reasonable excuse.

What will the fall out be?

HMRC’s own systems are unlikely to be able to pre-empt any issues arising from the current TSB Bank systems error.

Which means there will probably be a lot of penalty notices issued and interest charges raised on late payment. Following which the appeal process will need to begin.

But how many people will understand how to make an appeal. HMRC’s site explains about this, but we are here to help if you need assistance.

https://www.gov.uk/tax-appeals/penalty

https://www.darrallandcompany.com/contact-us/

Reflecting on the future …

Then there will be the question of whether TSB will cover your costs and at the time of writing we have not seen any clear direction from TSB as to how this will be serviced.