Company VAT penalty can be a liability of an “officer”

A recent case before the tax tribunal saw the liability for a late VAT registration penalty being passed on to a manager of the company. HMRC have the power to impose such a penalty on an individual where (1) there is a penalty payable by the company for a deliberate failure (2) the individual on whom HMRC seek to impose liability is an officer of the company; and (3) the deliberate failure is attributable to that officer.