Finance Act 2004

[F1 315D Other exemptions from liability to a penalty U.K.

(1) A person is deemed not to have failed to comply with a duty imposed by a provision mentioned in the first column of the table in section 315(1) if the person had a reasonable excuse for the failure and—

(a) the reasonable excuse continues to apply, or

(b) the reasonable excuse has ceased to apply, but the person complied with the duty without unreasonable delay after the cessation.

(2) Where an order is made under section 306A or 314A—

(a) the order is not evidence that a person either does or does not have a reasonable excuse for non-compliance before the order was made, and

(b) the person identified in the order as the promoter cannot rely on doubt as to notifiability as a reasonable excuse for a failure to comply with section 308.

(3) Where a person fails to comply with—

(a) section 309 and the promoter for the purposes of that section is a monitored promoter, or

(b) section 310 and the arrangements for the purposes of that section are arrangements of a monitored promoter,

then any legal advice which was given or procured by that monitored promoter and which the person took into account is to be disregarded in determining whether the person has a reasonable excuse for the failure.

(4) In determining whether or not a person who is a monitored promoter has a reasonable excuse for a failure to do anything required to be done, reliance on legal advice does not constitute a reasonable excuse if either—

(a) the advice was not based on a full and accurate description of the facts, or

(b) the conclusions in the advice that the person relied on were unreasonable.

(5) For the purposes of this section, “monitored promoter” has the meaning given by section 244(5) of FA 2014.]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 315-315E substituted for s. 315 (18.3.2026) by Finance Act 2026 (c. 11), s. 216(2)(b) (with s. 219)