Finance Act 1948

55 Assessment and collection of contribution, and service of notices.

(1) Contribution shall be a debt due to the Crown, and shall be assessed and charged by the Special Commissioners.

(2) Any return relating to the income of an individual made for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts shall be available to the Special Commissioners for the purposes of this Part of this Act, and where it appears to the Commissioners that the information contained in the return is sufficient to enable them to make an assessment they may make the assessment on that information.

(3) Where it appears to the Special Commissioners that no return, or no sufficient return, relating to the income of an individual has been made for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts, the Commissioners may make an assessment to the best of their judgment.

(4) The Special Commissioners may, whether an assessment to contribution has been made or not, require any person in whose case it appears to those Commissioners that contribution is or may be payable by him, and that he has in his possession any" information relevant to the assessment or recovery of the contribution, to furnish to the Commissioners within such time as they may prescribe, not being less than twenty-eight days, such particulars as they consider necessary for the purposes of the assessment or recovery of the contribution ; and if any person without reasonable excuse fails to furnish within the time prescribed any particulars required under this subsection, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds and after judgment has been given for that penalty to a further penalty of the like amount for every day during which the failure continues.

(5) Section two hundred and twenty-two of the Income Tax Act, 1918 (which confers powers to mitigate income-tax penalties, and provides for the application of penalties and other sums) shall apply in relation to penalties recoverable under the last foregoing subsection.

(6) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue may by statutory instrument make regulations with respect to the assessment and collection, and the repayment, of contribution and interest thereon, and subject to the foregoing provisions of this section may by those regulations apply and adapt the provisions of the Income Tax Acts relating to returns and the giving of information and to the assessment and collection of income tax and interest thereon.

Any statutory instrument made under this subsection shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of resolution of either House of Parliament.

(7) Any notice under this Part of this Act may be served by post.