Residents who do not report disposal for sold residential property may face £100 fine
UK residents who sell a residential property in the UK will be subjected to a £100 fine if they do not report disposals within 30 days, said leading tax and advisory firm Blick Rothenberg.
Robert Pullen, a partner at the firm said: ‘Rules that were introduced from 6th April 2020 requiring UK residents to report disposals of UK residential property within 30 days were extended due to the COVID-19, but this comes to an end on 31st July and any late filings after Friday will incur a £100 penalty.’
He added: ‘While the initial extension was welcome, it is unfortunate HMRC does not recognise that people’s lives are still very much disrupted. Reintroducing the £100 penalty for the short 30 days filing deadline seems very harsh given the circumstances. It would have been fairer to provide a further extension to the deadline, until later this year, when hopefully more offices are open, and people begin to get back to something closer to normal.’
Pullen noted that: ‘In addition to the short 30 days time frame, HMRC continues to be grappling with a whole new administrative system, which is not 100% functioning and still has teething issues. In particular, executors of a deceased estate cannot yet use the new online service and have to report the disposal on paper. On the one hand, the Government is trying to kick-start the property market with the SDLT holiday payment launched, it does not seem right that with the other hand they are tightening the reporting time limits.’
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