FINES ARE NOT FINE

Following the deadline on the 31^st of January 890,000 people face fines for failing to submit their self-assessment tax return on time. There is an initial £100 penalty for failing to submit a tax return by this time, subsequent fines are as follows:

• After 3 months, daily penalties of £10 per day up to a maximum of £900
• After 6 months, a further penalty of 5% of the tax due or £300 whichever is greater.
• After 12 months, another 5% or £300 whichever is greater.

Ruth Owen, HMRC’s director general of personal tax advised ‘if you’re one of the minority who missed the deadline you still need to get your tax return to us as soon as possible, to avoid further penalties and interest mounting up’.

Despite many missing the deadline, HMRC oversaw the biggest digital Self assessment event ever, receiving 10.24 million tax returns by midnight on the 31^st of January. A record 85.5% of these were sent online. Around 4.3 million customers left it until January to file their tax returns, which were issued in April 2014.

Are you one of the 890,000 people who did not file their return on time?  If you need our help to avoid further penalties, please do do avoid contacting us.  It will not go away if you ignore it.