Third Stone Limited v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Decision date: 13 May 2010
Neutral citation: [2010] UKFTT 234 (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
Third Stone Ltd appealed HMRC penalties for failing to file employer end-of-year PAYE returns for 2006/07–2008/09. The Tribunal found that the company’s director had relied on the company secretary/agent without evidence that returns had been filed and that this reliance did not amount to a "reasonable excuse." The penalties were upheld and the appeal dismissed.
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 decision treats the employer as statutorily responsible for filing end-of-year PAYE returns and holds that appointing or relying on a company secretary or other agent does not, without evidence of proper filing, constitute a reasonable excuse for late filing.
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 noted HMRC’s acceptance of returns later filed by new accountants as evidence that earlier filings had not been made. It also observed (procedurally) that a penalty might be set aside where a continuing exceptional event beyond the employer’s control prevented timely filing, though no such event applied here.
Warning
Chunk contains duplicated passages and formatting artefacts; some repetition in the facts and findings. notes contain duplicated passages and formatting artefacts; they may be incomplete.