Fleur De Provence v The Commissioners of Customs and Excise, V 18941
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Howard NOWLAN |
| Judgment Date | 17 February 2005 |
| Respondent | The Commissioners of Customs and Excise |
| Appellant | Fleur De Provence |
| Reference | V 18941 |
| Court | First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) |
18941
Late and instalment payment of VAT – Default surcharge – Whether 10% rate of surcharge triggered by any lack of clarity on the part of the Commissioners
FLEUR DE PROVENCE Appellant
-
and –
Tribunal: HOWARD M NOWLAN (Chairman)
SUNIL K DAS
Sitting in public in London on 12 January 2005
Guy Weller and Marcel Bouchenga in person
Alistair Dougal for the Respondents
© CROWN COPYRIGHT 2005
1. This was a relatively simple appeal by Fleur de Provence against the imposition of default surcharge in respect of Fleur de Provence’s VAT liability for the period ending 30 April 2004.
2. It was undisputed that Fleur de Province, a restaurant business, had defaulted either in filing its return on time, or in paying its VAT on time for the two periods ended 31 July 2003 and 31 January 2004. Since for those periods the rate of surcharge was only 2% and 5% respectively and the amount of VAT owed was relatively low the amount of surcharge fell below the £400 de minimis level, with the result that the liability for surcharge was waived.
3. It had been argued that the business had a reasonable excuse for its late payment of VAT for the period ending 31 January 2005, since the restaurant had been closed in January and the pick up of business in February had been slower than expected. Since section 71(1)(a) Value Added Tax Act 1994 specifically states that an insufficiency of funds to pay VAT cannot rank as a reasonable excuse for the late filing of a...
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