The Appellant was a UK non-resident who prior to leaving the UK had received a dividend payment of £320,000. He submitted his tax return showing the dividend but the return stated he had not been resident in the UK for the year in question. This was an error on the Appellant’s part as he had not realised non-resident rules had changed. After investigation HMRC charged for the tax and a penalty based on their belief that the error was deliberate. The Appellant contested this and the First-tier Tribunal agreed with the Appellant that his prior knowledge which was out of date had led him to make the mistake he had. Instead of a deliberate error it was decided that the error was careless.
This case shows that although HMRC appear to have an automatic assumption that every error is deliberate, if you are convinced that the error that has arisen was not deliberate then you should challenge that penalty decision.