The next two weeks will see so many people doing the same thing, frantically searching in drawers and filing cabinets for documents, statements and other vital pieces of information required to fill out their tax return.
According to HM Revenue & Customs approximately 4 million people have yet to complete their self assessment tax return and the clock is ticking. Time is no longer on your side to procrastinate reasons for leaving it for another day. Bite the bullet and start right now.
It doesn’t even matter if you don’t owe any tax, if your name is down to fill in a return and you are late then you will automatically be hit with a £100 penalty. To hit home a little more there are additional penalties if you keep delaying, which could add up to £1,600.
HMRC are currently receiving 80,000 completed returns per day and though it is now too late to fill in your paper return it can be done online as long as you resister for HMRC online services, this involves getting an “activation code” by post, which will take a few days to arrive. HMRC advise that if you register by 21 January you should be able to meet the deadline for filing 10 days later.
So if you do one thing today ensure it is registering online
To end here are the top 10 excuses for filling the tax return late*:
My pet goldfish died (self-employed builder)
- I had a run-in with a cow (Midlands farmer)
- After seeing a volcanic eruption on the news, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else (London woman)
- My wife won’t give me my mail (self-employed trader)
- My husband told me the deadline was 31 March, and I believed him (Leicester hairdresser)
- I’ve been far too busy touring the country with my one-man play (Coventry writer)
- My bad back means I can’t go upstairs. That’s where my tax return is (a working taxi driver)
- I’ve been cruising round the world in my yacht, and only picking up post when I’m on dry land (South East man)
- Our business doesn’t really do anything (Kent financial services firm)
- I’ve been too busy submitting my clients’ tax returns (London accountant)
*Taken from HMRC website
All of these people and businesses received a £100 penalty from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for filing late. They appealed against the decision using these excuses, but were unsuccessful.