Finance Act 2021

80 Penalty for contravening relevant requirements

(1) Where a person (P) fails to comply with a relevant requirement, P is liable to—

(a) a fixed penalty of £500, and

(b) a daily penalty of £40 for each day, after the first, on which the person continues to fail to comply.

(2) Where P is liable to a daily penalty in respect of a continuing failure to comply with a relevant requirement P is not liable to a further fixed penalty in respect of that failure.

(3) P is not liable to a penalty under this section in respect of an act or omission in respect of which P—

(a) has been convicted of an offence, or

(b) is liable to a penalty other than under this section.

(4) P is not liable to a penalty under this section if P satisfies the Commissioners or (on appeal) the appeal tribunal within the meaning of Schedule 11 that there is a reasonable excuse for the failure.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (4)—

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

(b) where P relies on any other person to do anything, that is not a reasonable excuse unless P took reasonable care to avoid the failure, and

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

(6) Where P is liable to a penalty under this section—

(a) the Commissioners or, on appeal, the appeal tribunal within the meaning of Schedule 11, may reduce the penalty to such amount (including nil) as they think proper;

(b) on an appeal relating to any penalty reduced by the Commissioners, the appeal tribunal may cancel the whole or any part of the Commissioners’ reduction.

(7) In this section, “relevant requirement” means an obligation or a requirement imposed by or under—

(a) section 58 (variation and correction of the register);

(b) section 61 (payment, collection and recovery);

(c) section 63 (records);

(d) section 65 (security for tax);

(e) section 68 (statements);

(f) section 69 (tax representatives);

(g) section 74 (death, incapacity or insolvency of person carrying on a business);

(h) section 75 (transfer of business as a going concern);

(i) Schedule 9 (secondary liability and assessment notices and joint and several liability notices);

(j) Schedule 13 (groups of companies).

(8) The Treasury may by regulations amend subsection (1) so as to substitute for the amounts for the time being specified there amounts taking account of inflation.

(9) The Treasury may by regulations amend subsection (7) so as to add or remove a requirement relating to plastic packaging tax as a “relevant requirement”.

(10) Schedule 14 makes provision about the assessment of penalties under this section.