If a partnership return is not filed by the filing date
penalties are imposed on all relevant partners (that is all persons
who were partners at any time within the period covered by the
return). Further guidance is available at EM4585.
Under TMA70/S100B an appeal may be made against a charge
arising from a fixed automatic penalty relating to the late
submission of an SA return. Although the penalties are imposed on
each relevant partner, an appeal can only be made by the nominated
partner or an agent acting for the partnership or the nominated
partner. That appeal is a composite appeal against the
determination of each relevant partner's penalty and is dealt with
through the partnership record.
The statutory appeal period is 30 days. The appeal is to the
General Commissioners, unless the appellant elects for the appeal
to be heard by the Special Commissioners.
The grounds of appeal are generally
Capping does not apply to penalties charged because of late
filing of a partnership return and so there can be no appeal on the
grounds that the fixed automatic penalty should have been reduced.
If you receive an appeal against a penalty on a partnership,
try to settle it immediately. If you cannot
If the appeal is to be heard by the General Commissioners,
ensure that the Commissioners are aware that they are considering
the penalties recorded on ALL of the partners’ SA records. In
addition to showing the name of the partnership and the nature of
the appeal the following additional information should be shown on
the Commissioners’ list
‘(Nominated partner) representing XYZ partnership for
(Partner A) - Penalty £100
(Partner B) - Penalty £100
(Partner C) - Penalty £100’
In such circumstances CODA Function AH will not handle the
necessary entries and a supplementary list will need to be manually
prepared.
When the appeal is settled inform the responsible office for
each partner of the outcome.
