16 June 2015
Appealing Against CIS Late-Filing Penalties
Following the changes to the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) in December 2014, companies will be able to use the new online HMRC Penalty Appeal Service (PAS) to appeal against CIS late-filing penalties from Monday 29 June 2015.
The new service will be the quickest and easiest way to make an appeal against penalties for missing the deadline to file a CIS monthly return. In order to use it, a company has to sign up to CIS through HMRC online services. For those companies already registered online, the Penalty Appeal Service will automatically appear on their CIS page. HMRC will deal promptly with the appeal online providing an immediate acknowledgement and only if the appeal is not accepted will it be referred to an HMRC Officer for further review.
To make an appeal via the online service, a company will need to:
1. Log onto HMRC online services and select the CIS section of the website
2. Select ‘Appeal a Penalty’ to see a list of all the penalties that can be appealed which will show:
o Unique ID (shown on the penalty notice)
o Type of penalty
o Issue date (shown on the penalty notice)
o Tax (Return) period end date
o Amount of penalty
3. If there are no penalties to appeal, a message will appear stating: ‘You do not currently have any penalties that can be appealed’. Anyone that believes they have a penalty to appeal but the notice is not online will be able to either contact the CIS helpline or write to HMRC using the contact details on the penalty notice
4. To appeal a penalty, select the Unique ID as shown on the penalty notice that you wish to appeal and then follow the onscreen instructions
5. Once the appeal has been processed, a Generic Notice will be issued detailing the result of the appeal which can be accessed by selecting ‘Generic Notices’ on the home screen.
For those who are not able to file online, an alternative paper appeals service will be retained.
Members can receive free advice on CIS via the Tax and Business Helpline provided by Baker Tilly on 0844 249 9875.