Taxes Management Act 1970 section 118

Interpretation

Section 118 provides the definitions of key terms used throughout the Taxes Management Act 1970, and sets out important rules about time limits, reasonable excuses, when tax assessments become final, and the meaning of careless and deliberate behaviour.

• The section defines essential terms such as "tax", "the Taxes Acts", "chargeable period", "company", "trade", "return", "partner", "partnership return", and the abbreviations for the major tax statutes (e.g. ITEPA 2003, ITTOIA 2005, ITA 2007, CTA 2009, CTA 2010, TIOPA 2010).
• A person is not treated as having failed to meet a deadline if HMRC, the tribunal, or the relevant officer granted extra time, or if the person had a reasonable excuse and acted without unreasonable delay once that excuse ended.
• A tax assessment is not considered finally determined until it can no longer be changed — either through a tribunal appeal or by court order.
• A loss of tax is treated as brought about "carelessly" if the person failed to take reasonable care, and as brought about "deliberately" if it resulted from a deliberate inaccuracy in a document given to HMRC — including where a person discovers information they gave was wrong and fails to tell HMRC.