Saajid Cockar v The Commissioners for HMRC
Decision date: 6 February 2025
Neutral citation: [2025] UKFTT 303 (TC)
Overall AI summary confidence: medium
Short overview
This short overview is intended to summarise the case, issues and outcome so far as they are supported by the judgment.
AI confidence in this short overview: medium
This appeal challenged Schedule 55 penalties of £1,300 for late filing the 2021/22 self‑assessment return. The Tribunal proceeded in the appellant’s absence, found HMRC had sent a notice to file (based on a Return Summary together with contemporaneous SA caller notes and address records), rejected the appellant’s asserted reasonable excuse and refused special reduction, and dismissed the appeal. Permission to apply for permission to appeal was preserved.
Ratio decidendi
This summary is intended to identify the ratio decidendi, meaning the legal reasons for deciding and the binding part of the decision.
AI confidence in this ratio decidendi summary: medium
The Tribunal treated a Return Summary as insufficient on its own to prove a notice to file but held that such a summary, when corroborated by contemporaneous evidence (for example SA caller notes and address records), can establish on the balance of probabilities that HMRC sent a notice to file; and tribunals may properly proceed with hearings in a party’s absence where reasonable steps to notify have been taken and it is proportionate and in the interests of justice to do so.
Obiter dicta
This summary is intended to identify obiter dicta, meaning observations made by the way that were not necessary to deciding the case and are not binding.
AI confidence in this obiter dicta summary: low
The judgment includes observations that conducting hearings by video can facilitate participation and reduce obstacles to attendance, and that mere bona fide mistakes or changes in employment status without supporting evidence are unlikely to constitute a reasonable excuse for prior tax‑year filing failures.
Warning
- The chunk contains repeated and duplicated passages which required consolidation for clarity. Notes contain repeated and duplicated passages and were consolidated; they may not capture the full detail of the judgment.