In Zoltan Hegedus v HMRC [2014] UKFTT 1049 (19 November 2014) the FTT found that a taxpayer who had filed his return late because of a delay in receiving an authorisation code from HMRC did not have a reasonable excuse.
Mr Hegedus was appealing against a penalty for late filing of his self-assessment return. His accountant had sent a letter to HMRC explaining that the only reason for the delay was that Mr Hegedus had used an accountant for the first time. He had not realised that this accountant did not run commercial software and so must order an authorisation code from HMRC which was delivered by post.
Agreeing with HMRC the FTT found that Mr Hegedus had not established a reasonable excuse. There had been no unexpected or unforeseeable event which had caused the delay. Furthermore Mr Hegedus should not have left it so late to...
