ARTG8240 - First-tier and Upper Tribunals: Appeals to the tribunal: Late appeals - application to the tribunal

If a customer wants to appeal to the tribunal outside the time limits described in ARTG2420 and ARTG3120 they must apply to the tribunal for permission to do so. These applications must be included on the appeal form. 

In these cases HMRC must decide whether to oppose the application for permission to make a late appeal.

When making this decision the litigator should take into account that the tribunal has a wide discretion over whether to allow late appeals. As well as considering such matters as why the appeal was made late, they are required to deal with cases in a manner which produces a fair and just result.

For direct taxes, if the customer initially sent an appeal to HMRC outside the time limit, see ARTG2180, and we did not accept the late appeal, they may apply to the tribunal for permission to make a late appeal.

If this application is allowed, we should consider the appeal in the normal way, offering a review or responding to a customer’s request for review as appropriate.

The Tribunals Service will tell HMRC of a late appeal application by sending notification to the Clearing House. The Clearing House will forward the application to Solicitor’s Office.

The decision maker should pass the case papers to the litigator to prepare the case for the hearing of the application. When considering whether to oppose the application, the litigator should take into account factors such as

• the length of time that elapsed since the time limit expired
• whether there was a reasonable excuse for the appeal being late, see ARTG2250
• what the tribunal is likely to think of the case.