Section 126 - General disciplines related to penalty.

Penalty proportionality: apply restraint for minor, easily rectified tax breaches and ensure opportunity to be heard.

Penalties must be applied with restraint and proportionality: minor breaches and easily rectifiable documentation errors made without fraud or gross negligence should not attract penalty; assessment must be fact-specific and commensurate with severity; no penalty without opportunity to be heard; orders must specify the nature of the breach and the legal provision relied upon; voluntary pre-discovery disclosure is a mitigating factor; the section does not apply where the Act prescribes fixed-sum or fixed-percentage penalties.