SAOG18200 - In what circumstances is a penalty chargeable: types of penalty

There are three types of penalty under the Senior Accounting Officer (SAO) provisions.

  • Where a qualifying company fails to notify HMRC of the name of the person/ persons who has/ have been its SAO in a financial year within the required timescales, a penalty of £5,000 is chargeable on the company for its financial year, see SAOG18300.
  • Where an SAO fails to comply with their main duty to take reasonable steps to ensure that the company establishes and maintains appropriate tax accounting arrangements in a financial year, a penalty of £5,000 is chargeable on the SAO for the financial year, see SAOG18400.
  • Where an SAO fails to provide a certificate to HMRC for a financial year within the required timescales, see SAOG18500, or provides a timely certificate that contains a careless or deliberate inaccuracy to HMRC for a financial year, see SAOG18600, a penalty of £5,000 is chargeable on the SAO for the financial year.

Each of these penalties is a fixed amount of £5,000. If a penalty is chargeable that is the amount of the penalty. There is no reduction available for any reason.

An SAO can be liable to

  • a penalty for failing to comply with their main duty, and
  • a penalty either for a failure to provide a timely certificate or for providing a timely certificate that contains a careless or deliberate inaccuracy

for the same financial year but see SAOG18500 where groups are concerned.

If there has been a failure but there is a reasonable excuse, see SAOG20000, for the failure, there will be no penalty. However, there can be no reasonable excuse for an SAO providing a certificate that contains a careless or deliberate inaccuracy.

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