SDLTM86460 - Compliance: Penalties

Culpability: Defences and responses: Failure to submit a land transaction return on time

Defences

A purchaser may claim that they did not submit the land transaction return on time, see SDLTM80030, because

• their affairs were too complicated to be able to complete the land transaction return in time
• they were let down by their solicitor, in whom they had implicit trust
• of illness, absence or family problems
• they were too busy running their business or working
• they did not have the necessary records to complete their land transaction return
• they had completed the form as far as possible and the rest of the information would follow as soon as they had time or could obtain the required particulars
• the missing information had already been supplied in some other context

Response

HM Revenue & Customs view is that reasonable excuse depends on some exceptional event beyond the purchaser’s control.

The following should therefore not be accepted as reasonable excuses

• the land transaction return is too difficult
• my affairs are complicated
• pressure of work
• failure by the agent
• delays in the post
• insufficient records