A taxpayer was excused the penalty for not paying the high income child benefit charge in time. The taxpayer paid the charge itself; he only appealed against the penalty. The taxpayer’s argument was that he had no knowledge of the charge. He was an employee, so his tax was dealt with under PAYE. Although he was aware of the duty to notify HMRC of a change of circumstances, this was not a change of circumstances — the introduction of the charge was a change in the law.
The judge quoted the case Christine Perrin [2018] UKUT 156. At para 82 of the upper tier tribunal’s judgment, the judge said “it is a much-cited aphorism that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’, and on occasion this has been given as a reason why the defence of reasonable excuse cannot be available in such circumstances. We see no basis for this argument. Some requirements of the law are well-known, simple and straightforward but others are much less so. It will be a matter of judgment for the [first tier tribunal] in each case whether it was objectively reasonable for the particular taxpayer, in the circumstances of the case, to have been ignorant of the requirement in question, and for how long”.
In this case, the judge held that ignorance of the law was a reasonable excuse.
The case report can be downloaded from http://financeandtax.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk//judgmentfiles/j11752/TC07794.pdf
Bachir Mohamed Belloul [2020] TC 7794 [20.07/10]