£10 a day from the 1st May!

If you submitted your tax return after the filing deadline of 31 January, or you still have not submitted your tax return, then you will automatically be fined £100 for missing the deadline.

In February, HMRC announced that they would be delaying issuing the late filing penalty notices due to Brexit. They have now announced that all of these should be issued by 12 April ensuring that those who have not yet submitted a 2017-18 tax return get a reminder just over two weeks before further penalties are applied.

If you continue to delay submitting your tax return, then from 1^st May an additional penalty of £10 a day will be charged by HMRC, up to a maximum of 90 days.  A further penalty of 5% of the tax due, or £300 if greater, will apply if the return is 6 months late.

We would advise anyone who has not yet filed a return to do so as a matter of urgency. You will only be able to avoid  the £100 penalty if you have what is considered as a ‘reasonable excuse’, but filing the return by 30 April will at least avoid an additional £10 per day.

Some examples of a reasonable excuse posted on the HMRC website are:

• Your partner or close relative died shortly before the tax return deadline
• You had an unexpected stay in hospital
• Your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online return
• Service issues with HMRC’s online services
• A fire, flood or theft
• Postal delays that you couldn’t have predicted
• Delays related to a disability you have

For further guidance please visit the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/log-in-file-self-assessment-tax-return

or speak to your usual Whiting and Partners contact.

Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.