SDLTM86550 - Compliance: Penalties

Contract settlements and abatement: Contract settlements

Mitigation

FA03/S99(2) states that the Board may at their discretion mitigate any penalty, or stay or compound any proceedings for recovery thereof and may also, after consideration, further mitigate or entirely remit the penalty. This only applies to penalties that have been determined and are final.

Where a request for the mitigation of finalised penalties is received, the file and a report should be submitted (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Tax-geared penalties are expressed as sums not exceeding ascertainable amounts. The Board’s policy in arriving at a pecuniary settlement is to reduce the maximum statutory penalties to an appropriate percentage of the culpable tax recoverable by assessments, which are not time- barred for penalty action.

The authority for penalty abatement comes from FA03/SCH14/PARA2 which says that an authorised officer of the Board making a penalty determination may set it at such amount as, in their opinion, is correct or appropriate.

To arrive at the correct or appropriate amount, the following must be considered

• the offences for which penalty proceedings could be taken
• the maximum amount of the penalties for those offences
• the factors affecting abatement, whether they are for or against the purchaser including factors put forward by the purchaser in person or on their behalf
• the amount of the culpable tax to be used in the calculation of the appropriate penalty

• (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
• (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
• (This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)