I, along with probably many other practitioners, have recently received a number of penalty notices under paragraph 3 of schedule 10 to the Finance Act 2003, for late submission of stamp duty land transaction returns.

In two of these cases, no stamp duty land tax was payable. In all cases, the returns were submitted on time; however, one of the many boxes within the forms was not completed. These omissions were immediately rectified on receipt of the forms from the Inland Revenue; however, because by the time they were re-submitted the forms were out of time, the Revenue is now imposing the £100 penalty.


I am in correspondence with the Revenue, which I hope in all of these circumstances will waive the penalty notices. If the Revenue chooses not to dispense with the notices in instances such as these, the good relationship that the profession has with the Revenue will breakdown.


Anthony Atkin, Iveson & Atkin, Driffield