The appellant’s actions in filing real-time information returns early because they did not know it was not permitted by law to do so were reasonable in the circumstances and no penalties were due for the relevant periods.

The appellant appealed against three late filing penalties of £100 each for the real-time information (RTI) periods ending 5 November 2020, 5 December 2020 and 5 January 2021. The appellant appealed, contending that each of those returns had been filed on 4 September 2020, together with other returns for the periods to the end of March 2021 and had provided printouts from the HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ‘Basic PAYE Tools’ software, which showed each return as submitted and marked ‘success’.

At the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) hearing, HMRC agreed that the returns had been filed on 4 September 2020 and explained that the penalties had been issued because the returns had been filed too early and were