O'Connor v Revenue & Customs (Income tax - high income child benefit charge)

Income tax - high income child benefit charge - penalty for failure to notify - appellant unaware of the charge as was living in Australia for ten years up to 2015 - his wife made child benefit claim and did not convey information about the charge on the form to the appellant - held: there was a reasonable excuse for failure to notify - penalty cancelled

The Tribunal determined the appeal without a hearing under the provisions of Rule 26 of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Tax Chamber) Rules 2009 (default paper cases) having first read the Notice of Appeal dated 26 January 2020 (with enclosures) and HMRC�s Statement of Case (acknowledged by the Tribunal on 2 June 2020); the Tribunal also had before it two pdf bundles prepared by HMRC: a hearing bundle pdf of 63 pages and a legislation, pro formas and press releases and case law bundle pdf of 440 pages (the �generic bundle�).

This was an appeal against penalties of �178.80 for failure to notify liability to income tax by reason of the high income child benefit charge (the �Charge�).

On 26 November 2019 HMRC raised assessments to the Charge on the appellant, Mr O�Connor, for the tax years 2016-17 and 2017-18, each in the amount of �1,788. On the same date HMRC raised a �failure to notify� penalty assessment in respect of 2016-17 only (the �tax year in question�) in the amount of �178.80. The penalty was calculated as 10% of potential lost revenue (�PLR�).

Mr O�Connor appealed against the penalty assessment to HMRC on 18 December 2019.