Tax Fine on the Dead

12.27.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 7th Oct 2008

A 74-year old lady has been fined because she did not get her tax return in on time - she was dead, having died six weeks before the end of the tax year.

Her executor, her niece, a local resident was not able to meet the deadline and has been fined £100. The Inland Revenue has, so far, rejected representations to waive the fine.

Vincent Cable MP has written a strongly worded letter to the Head of the Inland Revenue describing its behaviour as "monstrous" and "bureaucracy gone made". Janice Savory's aunt died on 17th December last year. Her financial affairs were complex and her papers were in a mess. It took Ms Savory several weeks not merely to organise the funeral but sort out the paperwork. By the time she had submitted the paperwork the Inland Revenue's 31st January deadline had passed. Tax officials seemed totally oblivious and insensitive to the personal circumstances. Ms Savory's aunt had little tax to pay in any event, since she was not particularly well off. This was simply a case of bureaucratic inflexibility.

"The Government's finances are not in great shape but fining the dead because they haven't completed tax returns seems rather extreme."