HMRC will be sending out hundreds of thousands of late self assessment penalty fines for the 2012/2013 tax year. The fines are sent automatically if you’ve missed the 31st January 2014 deadline.
On 1st February 2014 it was estimated that 710,000 tax returns were still to be submitted. On a positive around 10 million were completed and submitted either online or by paper. HMRC reported the busiest time for receiving tax returns online was deadline day itself, when 569,847 were received on the 31st January.
Between 4pm and 5pm was the hour when most were submitted with a total of 45,706. Some 21,027 left it really late submitting online in the last hour of the deadline. Last tax year 850,000 missed the deadline meaning that there was a drop of 20,000 from the previous year. The hard hitting late penalties might have something to do with more people sending them in on time.
Late penalties can become costly very quickly so if you are still late acting sooner rather than late is important. If you have a reasonable excuse for not filing on time HMRC can stop or refund any late penalties already paid. HMRC are not unreasonable in cases where you have a genuine reason for not meeting the deadline.
Child Benefit Tax Returns
One of the reasons why so many had not filed on time is higher earners receiving child benefit. With the change in the child benefit rules a tax return has been sent to thousands of parents for the first time. HMRC confirmed in the region of 100,000 parents having to complete a tax return because of child benefit, had failed to do so by the 31st January.
