Pressuretech Transport Services Ltd v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Decision date: 20 January 2011
Neutral citation: [2011] UKFTT 74 (TC)
Overall AI summary confidence: high
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: high
Pressuretech appealed a 5% civil penalty (£717.35) imposed for a late excise return/payment for 1 Jan–31 Mar 2010. The tribunal found the late submission and payment resulted from insufficiency of funds caused by the company’s deliberate use of customer payments to finance the business and its deliberate non‑use of available overdraft facilities, held there was no reasonable excuse, and dismissed the appeal.
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: high
Where a taxpayer claims cashflow problems as a reasonable excuse for late excise return/payment, such a claim will not succeed if adequate overdraft facilities existed but were deliberately not used; a history of similar failures is also a relevant factor in assessing whether an excuse is reasonable.
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: medium
The tribunal indicated it may examine the root causes of insufficiency of funds when assessing a reasonable excuse, and observed that withdrawal of an earlier penalty for inability to pay does not automatically excuse later failures.