For anyone who has to complete a personal income tax return for the year 2010-2011 you’ve got exactly a week left to submit it or you’ll be facing a fine of at least £100.
Up until this year HMRC have always imposed a fixed penalty of £100 for filing your tax return late, but this was limited to the amount of tax and National Insurance you were due to pay. If you didn’t owe anything then there was no fine to pay.
This has changed as of the 2010-2011 tax year, if you fail to submit your return by the 31st then the £100 fine kicks in and it then increases by an additional £10 for every day you’re late up to a total of £900. If you’re more than six months late you’ll be fined another £300 or 5% of your tax bill whichever is greater and the same again for being more than 12 months late.
It’s important to realise that even if you owe no tax (or even if HMRC owe you a tax refund) you’ll still be fined if you submit your return late. It really is worth getting your return in on time and if you’re new to self employment or selling on eBay then it’s not too late – find a good accountant and they’ll be able to help you submit your return on time and probably save you money off your tax bill as well.
3 Responses
It should be noted that, I believe, the £10 a day fine only kicks in 90 days AFTER the 31st of Jan as far as I am led to believe. A recent Telegraph’s piece got this wrong.
I called HMRC to clarify this. Worth confirming.
https://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm
It should be noted that there are suggestions that the HMRC Site is expected to have serious problems on the 31st January especially if large numbers all try to submit their Tax Returns at the same time. So it should be a good idea to submit earlier rather than leave it to the last day.
Has anybody had any problem with getting their online activation code when registering to fill in the partnership part of self assessment online?
I entered the partnership’s UTR on the website at the start of the month and they said that they would send out an activation code within 7 days (like they did when I registered for self assessment online and VAT online). The activation code did not come and I requested for another one to be sent, but I haven’t got that yet either.
If this one doesn’t come either, I’ll probably face the £100 (as will my partner).
Do they ever let you off in circumstances where your code doesn’t come and you have tried to get a replacement within the deadline? I heard on a radio show today that somebody had to request the activation code 3 times before they sucessfully got it.