Notice to file partnership return must be issued to a specified partner
Notice to file partnership return must be issued to a specified partner
Tue 09 Oct 2018
In the case of Leverington v HMRC [2018] TC06709, the First Tier Tax Tribunal (FTT) cancelled late filing penalties in respect of a partnership of which the appellant was a member, on the basis that HMRC could not prove that it had issued its notice to file the return to the representative partner.
Under s12AA (2) TMA 1970, “an officer of the Board may by a notice given to the partners require such person as is identified in accordance with rules given with the notice…. to make and deliver to the officer a return containing such information as may reasonably be required in pursuance of the notice.”. S12AA(3) permits an officer to give a notice to any partner requiring that partner (or his successor) to make a deliver a tax return.
In this case, a notice to file a partnership return for 2015-16 was issued to the partnership’s business address, but it was unclear which partner was identified as the one required to file the return under s12AA (2). In its statement of case, HMRC had identified the appellant as the “representative partner”. The FTT could find no evidence of HMRC’s identification of a representative partner and as HMRC could not prove that one had been identified in the notice, the FTT cancelled the penalties.
Comment
This case demonstrates the importance of establishing whether the premise on which a penalty has been levied is valid and challenging those that are not. For a further discussion of partnership tax or tax appeal issues, please get in touch with a member of the Mazars personal tax or tax investigations team.
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