SDLTM86420 - Compliance: Penalties

Culpability: General: Delegation of responsibility by purchaser

The purchaser cannot delegate responsibility for his or her own land transaction return. A plea that errors are due to poor work by an accountant/solicitor should normally be rejected.

A purchaser should sign their own land transaction return and is required to sign the declaration that the land transaction return is to the best of their knowledge correct and complete under FA03/SCH10/PARA1. The purchaser must take personal responsibility for the accuracy of the return and the declaration.

For the purposes of FA03/SCH10/PARA8 penalties, any information submitted on behalf of any person is deemed to have been submitted by them unless they prove that it was submitted without their consent or connivance.

In Clixby v Pountney 44TC515 it was found that false accounts submitted by an accountant amounted to wilful default on behalf of the taxpayer. Similarly in Pleasants v Atkinson 60TC228 a gross accountancy error by the accountant, who had assured the purchaser of the propriety of his proposed action, could properly be found to be wilful default committed on behalf of the taxpayer.

Normally it should be contended that the purchaser remains responsible for the acts of their agent.