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Updated - see HMRC Says No Penalties for Filing Tax Returns or Paying Tax Late up to 2nd February

Whilst we understand that some news sources are suggesting that HM Revenue & Customs has agreed to waive penalties for taxpayers who are unable to get through to them because of strike action, our contacts at HMRC have insisted that it will instead be "business as usual" on 31 January.

On 31 January, the Public and Commercial Services Union is planning to hold a one-day strike action on account of its members who operate in HMRC's call centres, because of fears over possible privatisation by the Treasury.

This is of course the statutory filing deadline for Self Assessment tax returns, and is one of the busiest days of the year for call centres - there were apparently 90,000 calls from taxpayers on 31 January 2011, and similar numbers are expected for this year.

Whilst call centre strikes will not stop people from being able to access and use the online filing service as normal, there may be many taxpayers who will not be able to get the help they need in order to complete their online filing.

However, HMRC has not agreed to any special treatment for those taxpayers who are unable to resolve their queries because of strike action by HMRC staff but have suggested that the normal route of "Reasonable Excuse" will be available, to those affected by the strike action, to appeal against any penalties which are automatically issued afterwards. In other words, penalties will still be issued and it will be down to the taxpayer to appeal against the penalty, and to demonstrate that he or she had a 'reasonable excuse' throughout the penalty period until the return was filed.

For more information on "Reasonable Excuse", see What Counts as a Reasonable Excuse for Filing an Online Return Late?

Many readers will be aware that HMRC has suffered a bit of a bruising of late as regards how narrowly it defines "Reasonable Excuse" - see for instance Tax Penalties and Claiming the Cost of Appeals

Updated - see HMRC Says No Penalties for Filing Tax Returns or Paying Tax Late up to 2nd February