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LONDON TRIBUNAL CENTRE				Reference No: LON/2005/191

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								Appellant/Applicant

								Respondents

	REDWOOD ENGINEERING RECRUITMENT LTD	Appellant

	- and -

	HER MAJESTY’S REVENUE AND CUSTOMS	Respondents

	Tribunal: STEPHEN OLIVER QC (Chairman)
                                                        SHAWAR SADEQUE
	                          KEMAL HOSSEIN FCA			      
	Sitting in public in London on 1 June 2005

	DIRECTION
under Rule 30(8)

THIS APPEAL against a decision of the Respondents with respect to a Default Surcharge being a reasonable excuse appeal as defined by rule 2 of the Value Added Tax Tribunals Rules 1986 as amended coming on for hearing this day

AND UPON HEARING Simon Bird FCA For the Appellant and Philip Webb for the Respondents

AND THE parties present at the hearing by their said representatives stating pursuant to Rule 30(8) of the Value Added Tax Tribunals Rules 1986 as amended that they do not require the said decision to be recorded in a written document in accordance with Rule 30(1) of the said Rules

THIS TRIBUNAL FINDS THAT the Appellant did not have a reasonable excuse for the late payment: in particular it is not an excuse to say that had the company known it was in the default surcharge regime it would have paid on time.  It should have known that.  The problem arose because the financial officer’s predecessor had not handed over to her properly

AND THIS TRIBUNAL DIRECTS THAT this appeal is DISMISSED

AND that there is to be no direction as to costs

                                                      STEPHEN OLIVER QC
	Chairman
	Release Date: 16 June 2005

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