The delays in filing a tax return caused by the appellant being unaware that she had signed up to receive electronic notifications to her personal tax account and therefore was not consciously looking out for HMRC email alerts amounted to a reasonable excuse for penalty purposes.  

The appellant, who had been within the self-assessment system since 2004, started filing her tax returns online with her 2011/12 tax return, having registered for online filing in January 2013. For the tax years 2011/12 to 2018/19, the appellant filed her tax return on time (electronically), in most years on the day before the return fell due. On 1 March 2021, the appellant opted in to receiving communications from HMRC electronically (having originally opted in on 31 January 2016), but she was unaware of having done so.  

The effect of opting in was that statutory notices would be sent by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) electronically to the appellant;