unfair penalty for late tax return

[joroan]

this year i did my brothers tax return, well it was on the news at the time that their website couldnt cope with the amount of people wanting to use it so they extended the deadline by one day. i tried all day on the 31st and all day on the 1st Feb but it still wouldnt let me do it! i called them and told them, they gave me a call reference to prove i had called and said allot of people are having the same problem, just keep trying.

I did but still couldnt do it, so i rang my local tax office who said to print off hte forms and fill them out and post them the next day, which i did, i even sent them recorded delivery.

Well now my brother has recieved a bill for £100 late penalty fee, which i think is totally unfair as it was because of thier website crashing that i couldnt do it. i did everything else they suggested and they are still going to charge £100.

Is there anything i can do? there must be other people in the same situation.

[gizmo111]

Ring them up and explain to start with and see if they remove the charge.

[spotnot]

Agree with Gizmo. These letters are automatically generated. We get them at work, although its for Corporate tax. Just call them up, explain what happened, give them all the details and they should cancel the penalty.

Just done the same thing for one of my clients, penalty cancelled.

Spotnot

[Conniff]

It's not really unfair. They advertise from the ending of the tax year in April asking you to get your return in, sending it before 30th September would have had them calculate it for you.

From the end of September, the warnings on television about submitting it in time become heavier and more frequent, why did you leave it so late?

Remember that you have 28 days to pay or you will get landed with a 5% penalty and another 5% penalty if you haven't paid it within six months.