SCHEDULES
SCHEDULE 41Penalties: failure to notify and certain VAT and excise wrongdoing
Reasonable excuse
20
1
Liability to a penalty under any of paragraphs 1, 2, 3(1) and 4 does not arise in relation to an act or failure which is not deliberate if P satisfies HMRC or F1(on an appeal notified to the tribunal) the tribunal that there is a reasonable excuse for the act or failure.
2
For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1)—
a
an insufficiency of funds is not a reasonable excuse unless 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 relevant act or failure, and
c
where P had a reasonable excuse for the relevant act or failure but the excuse has ceased, P is to be treated as having continued to have the excuse if the relevant act or failure is remedied without unreasonable delay after the excuse ceased.