Finance (No. 2) Act 1992

79 After section 14A there shall be inserted the following section—

“14B Inaccuracies in EC sales statements

(1) Where—

(a) an EC sales statement containing a material inaccuracy has been submitted by any person to the Commissioners;

(b) the Commissioners have, within six months of discovering the inaccuracy, issued that person with a written warning identifying that statement and stating that future inaccuracies might result in the service of a notice for the purposes of this section;

(c) another EC sales statement containing a material inaccuracy (“the second inaccurate statement”) has been submitted by that person to the Commissioners;

(d) the submission date for the second inaccurate statement fell within the period of two years beginning with the day after the warning was issued;

(e) the Commissioners have, within six months of discovering the inaccuracy in the second inaccurate statement, served that person with a notice identifying that statement and stating that future inaccuracies will attract a penalty under this section;

(f) yet another EC sales statement containing a material inaccuracy is submitted by that person to the Commissioners; and

(g) the submission date for the statement falling within paragraph (f) above is not more than two years after the service of the notice or the date on which any previous statement attracting a penalty was submitted by that person to the Commissioners,

that person shall be liable to a penalty of £100 in respect of the statement so falling.

(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4) below, an EC sales statement shall be regarded for the purposes of this section as containing a material inaccuracy if, having regard to the matters required to be included in the statement, the inclusion or omission of any information from the statement is misleading in any material respect.

(3) An inaccuracy contained in an EC sales statement shall not be regarded as material for the purposes of this section if—

(a) the person who submitted the statement satisfies the Commissioners or, on appeal, a value added tax tribunal that there is a reasonable excuse for the inaccuracy; or

(b) at a time when he had no reason to believe that enquiries were being made by the Commissioners into his affairs, that person furnished the Commissioners with full information with respect to the inaccuracy.

(4) Where, by reason of the submission of a statement containing a material inaccuracy by any person, that person is convicted of an offence (whether under the principal Act or otherwise), the inaccuracy to which the conviction relates shall be regarded for the purposes of this section as not being material.

(5) Where the only statement identified in a warning or notice served for the purposes of subsection (1)(b) or (e) above is one which (whether by virtue of either or both of subsections (3) and (4) above or otherwise) is regarded as containing no material inaccuracies, that warning or notice shall be deemed not to have been issued or served for those purposes.

(6) In this section—

• “EC sales statement” means any statement which is required to be submitted to the Commissioners in accordance with regulations under paragraph 2(2A) of Schedule 7 to the principal Act; and

• “submission date”, in relation to such a statement, means whichever is the earlier of the last day for the submission of the statement to the Commissioners in accordance with those regulations and the day on which it was in fact submitted to the Commissioners.”