You can ask us to waive a payment penalty for late filing, non electronic filing or late payment. If we do this, it means the penalty is legally waived and you do not have to pay the penalty.
We can waive penalties in the following circumstances:
Reasonable cause
We may waive a penalty if the reason you were not able to file or pay on time was beyond your control - it must be 'reasonable' for an average person in the same position not to have filed or paid on time. We must apply the term reasonable to the event or circumstance.
Collecting the highest net revenue
Our legal duty is to collect as much money as possible over time, ideally through all taxpayers choosing to keep the tax laws. Sometimes this legal duty means we’ll be able to waive penalties, for example, where we charge a penalty because of:
- a genuine mistake
- a ‘one-off’ situation
- wrong advice we gave that directly resulted in your late paying, late filing or filing in the wrong way.
Moving between Inland Revenue sites
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