Blogs/Vlogs

Less than three days to go until the 31 January deadline!

29 January 2018

Despite having almost ten months of the year to compile information and submit your Self Assessment tax return, the number of people rushing around in the days leading up to the 31 January deadline never fails to amaze me.

Prior to the weekend just passed, HMRC stated that over three million people had still not filed their return, which represents almost a third of those required to submit returns. If any of those three million people have still not filed their return by midnight on Wednesday then they will be subject to a penalty of £100.

Whilst it shouldn’t be relied upon, HMRC do accept ‘reasonable excuses’ for late filings but it must be ‘something unexpected or outside your control’, such as:

  • The death of a partner
  • An unexpected hospital stay
  • Computer failure
  • Fire, flood, or theft preventing completion

In what can be a stressful time of year for those working in tax, here is a light-hearted list of the top five unusual excuses that HMRC received last year:

  • My wife has been seeing aliens and won’t let me enter the house
  • My ex-wife left the tax return upstairs and I cannot retrieve it because I suffer from vertigo
  • I’ve been far too busy touring the country with my one-man play
  • My business doesn’t really do anything
  • I spilled coffee on it

If you haven't yet submitted your tax return, now would be the time to do so!

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