Revenue Scotland and Tax Powers Act 2014

201 Reasonable excuse for failure to comply or obstruction

(1) Liability to a penalty under section 195 or 196 does not arise if the person satisfies Revenue Scotland or (on appeal) the tribunal that there is a reasonable excuse for the failure or the obstruction of a designated officer or of a person authorised by the officer.

(2) For the purposes of this section—

(a) an insufficiency of funds is not a reasonable excuse unless attributable to events outside the person’s control,

(b) where the person relies on another person to do anything, that is not a reasonable excuse unless the first person took reasonable care to avoid the failure or obstruction, and

(c) where the person had a reasonable excuse for the failure or obstruction but the excuse has ceased, the person is to be treated as having continued to have the excuse if the failure is remedied, or the obstruction stops, without unreasonable delay after the excuse ceased.