“I did not know the rules in the UK. I do not speak any English and I thought l did not have to send anything as my income has been below£11,500 . I promise that next tax return will be done on time.”
“It was no attention on my client side to put herself in this situation. This problem has occurred because of lack of English and Clients knowledge about the rules and her obligation. The appellant she was looking for somebody or some company to do Self-Assessment Tax return behalf of her. She found somebody who said that can help for small competitive fee. My client accepted and paid for the service that was never delivered to the client. My client found out about that when she has received a letter from HMRC. Please note, that the appellant is using us now, and she is informed about her obligation.”
“I am not agreed with the outcome of the decision letter dated3 October 2019 . The lack of knowledge and lack of English was the only reason why I took so long to complete all my duties. I have paid for the service to person who said that help me with this issue. I have trust to this person, but I was cheated. I have found out about that, when received a letter from HMRC Now I am using the practice who deals with my tax affairs properly, and all my Tax Returns are up to date Also, I would like to highlight, that my total turnover for 2017/18 Tax years was£2256 only, the current penalty would cost me more than half of that. I do understand that this is not an excuse, but as mentioned before. Because of low income I have decided to use help of someone cheap to help me and with consequences I was cheated and now have more problems.”
“I am an older person, who doesn’t understand the rules of taxes, so I needed help from person who I thought knew what was doing. I believed everything is done properly until I received the letter with penalty. I hadn’t got a clue that is something wrong because I trusted the person who made me sure all my things were sorted out and I didn’t have to worry about my tax.”
“One situation that can sometimes cause difficulties is when the taxpayer’s asserted reasonable excuse is purely that he/she did not know of the particular requirement that has been shown to have been breached. It is a much-cited aphorism that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’, and on occasion, this has been given as a reason why the defence of reasonable excuse cannot be available in such circumstances. We see no basis for this argument. Some requirements of the law are well-known, simple and straightforward but others are much less so. It will be a matter of judgment for the FTT in each case whether it was objectively reasonable for the particular taxpayer, in the circumstances of the case, to have been ignorant of the requirement in question, and for how long.”