Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 53

Compliance with time limits [ITEPA 2003 Sch 5 para 53]

Section 53 explains when a person will not be treated as having missed a deadline under the employment-related securities rules, provided they had a reasonable excuse and acted promptly once that excuse no longer applied.

• A person is not treated as having failed to meet a time limit if they had a reasonable excuse for the delay and completed the required action without unreasonable delay once the excuse ceased to exist.
• Where the reasonable excuse provision applies, any further deadline that would have run from the end of the original period instead runs from the date the action was actually completed.
• A shortage of funds is not accepted as a reasonable excuse unless it was caused by events outside the person's control.
• Relying on another person to carry out the required action is not a reasonable excuse unless the person took reasonable care to avoid the failure.