Mr Martin Sloots v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Decision date: 24 February 2011
Neutral citation: [2011] UKFTT 139 (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
Mr Sloots appealed a 5% default surcharge under s.59 TMA for late payment of his 2008/09 tax, arguing confusion over online calculations and inadequate HMRC information. The Tribunal found HMRC had made sufficient information available, rejected that the appellant had a reasonable excuse, and dismissed the appeal, confirming the surcharge.
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
The Tribunal’s decision indicates that, for s.59 TMA purposes, a taxpayer’s difficulty obtaining or understanding information from HMRC does not constitute a reasonable excuse where sufficient information was available and the taxpayer could have obtained it with reasonable diligence; likewise, mere unawareness of the possibility of a surcharge does not relieve the taxpayer of the obligation to pay on time.
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 observed that it may be impractical for HMRC to tailor delivery of information to each taxpayer’s preferred form and that a taxpayer’s request to HMRC for a detailed statement does not suspend the taxpayer’s obligation to make payment pending receipt of that statement.