While as a general principle, Income Tax Self Assessment returns which are filed on paper after 31 October can attract a penalty, HMRC recognise that situations can arise where the application of a penalty is inappropriate, but a claim must be made for this treatment.
Going forward, a reasonable excuse claim must be made in writing in a letter attached to the paper tax return, or on a special claim form. It must include the following information:
- either the error message or details of the error message which appeared where the attempt to file electronically failed.
- The UTR (Unique Taxpayer Reference)
- authorised agent name, address and contact details (if appropriate)
- reason for claiming reasonable excuse
- the date you tried to file a particular return online or realised that it could not be filed online
- date of claim
According to the HMRC statement "HMRC does not want to penalise customers who have made a genuine attempt to file online and therefore a reasonable excuse claim received without details of the appropriate error message will be considered sympathetically on its merits."