A recent tax case (J P Whitter (Waterwell Engineers) Ltd TC2316) found in favour of the tax payer.

HMRC had cancelled the company’s CIS gross payments status due to compliance failures including late payments.  The First-tier Tribunal found that HMRC had discretion to not cancel the gross payment status even where there was no reasonable excuse for the tax payers failures, and that HMRC should have used such discretion in this case.

If you are facing cancellation of gross payment status, particularly if you feel the consequences will be disproportional to your compliance failures, it could be worth taking the case to tribunal.

David Wilsdon