Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Act 2017 section 44

Special reduction in penalty — instalment agreements

Section 44 of Schedule 23 amends the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 to clarify that an agreed instalment arrangement with the Welsh Revenue Authority can count as a "special circumstance" justifying a reduction in a penalty.

• This provision amends section 125 of the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016, which deals with special reductions in penalties.
• It adds a new subsection confirming that "special circumstances" can include the fact that WRA has agreed to let a taxpayer pay devolved tax by instalments over an agreed period.
• This means that where a taxpayer has entered into a formal instalment arrangement with WRA, that arrangement can be taken into account when deciding whether to reduce a penalty.
• The effect is to protect taxpayers who are meeting their obligations under an agreed payment plan from being penalised in the same way as those who have simply failed to pay.