Tax return mislaid?

[abidemi]

We have been submitting our tax returns, always posted in June, for years using the paper version with no problems. However, this year, HMRC have apparently no record of my husband's tax return even though mine and his were posted at the same time and date in June and mine is recorded as having been received. We fortunately have proof of Special Delivery and the signature of the person at HMRC who signed for it. A trace was put on his tax return but when he called today, no further information was available. He was warned that if there is no record of the tax return submission before the deadline next week, there will be an automatic penalty of £100. We have therefore sent a copy of the return today, again by Special Delivery (receipts of same in hand) in the hope that its arrival will be successfully recorded on this occasion.

My question is, surely, any tax return that is posted before the deadline, must be recorded by officials at HMRC as being received before the deadline? Surely they cannot justify that, even though it was posted and delivery signed for before the deadline but recorded in their office after the deadline, a penalty should be imposed?

This is causing much distress to us as we have been diligent over the years about submitting our tax returns in a timely fashion. Fortunately, as per our calculations, we owe no tax on this occasion. Needless to say, we will set up an online account for submitting tax returns in future.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[pawncob]

Never admit a mistake. Never apologise. Never volunteer helpful information. The three rules by which HMRC abide.

Empty threats about penalties are always made, sometimes imposed, and invariably withdrawn without a notification or apology. You have proof that they received it, so it's their problem. You can prove you've complied with the law, so their penalty is a hollow threat.(If you're doing nothing else before Xmas, the correspondence will keep you busy, but do you need that much hassle?)

[abidemi]

Thank you for responding! We will see! We have posted another return today as apparently copies are only good if they have a wet signature and date. Will get there tomorrow, and, all being well, will get logged in this time!

[JRG]

HMRC are notorious for mislaying paper tax returns. Might I suggest that in future you complete your tax returns online, which not only immediately calculates your tax liability, but also acknowledges receipt of your submitted return.

[abidemi]

Yes, we will have to do that next year but as we were abroad for many years and have only been back for four years, we just continued with what we knew! Never had a problem before or we would have called much earlier in the year to ensure it had been logged in.