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01 Feb 2010
HM Revenue & Customs may not charge late payment fines to tax filers if their submission was delayed due to adverse weather conditions.
The taxman confirmed those who suffered genuine problems due to the snow should be able to avoid the £100 late filing penalty the Daily Telegraph reported.
As a result of the weather some accountants were unable to get to work at all with some taxpayers saying they could not get the right documents to their accountants.
A spokesman for HMRC said: "If something has adversely affected them, we will consider it and this includes the bad weather.''
The tax office will most likely want evidence that steps were taken to submit documents on time if filers want to avoid paying the penalty.
Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at ACCA, told the Daily Telegraph: “Taxpayers may have to show an audit trail and so they need to be straight with the taxman."
"HMRC knows there have been problems with the snow and while this is about e-filling, you still need to get the documents together and may have been affected by the weather,” he added.
The deadline for online filing was 31 January 2010, with paper returns submitted by 31 October 2009.
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Visitor comments Add your comment
Pathetic Excuse
People have 10 months to get their documents together, yet they still leave everything to the last minute! Because of this everyone is put under unnecessary pressure. I really do not understand it. We don't get snow until Winter, but why wait until then? We all know that this country comes to a grinding halt for some reason when it snows! Do your Tax Return at least before Christmas, and then you don't get stressed and need a pathetic excuse like this one! Get it out of the way early, then there is no problem, and you don't have to go to HMRC with this ridiculous begging bowl!
Posted by: Ken Stones, 02 Feb 2010 | 00:00