Readers will no doubt be aware that if you are required to file a self-assessment tax return for the tax year ending 5 April 2013, the filing deadline for electronic submission is 31 January 2014. At the time this blog posting was written that leaves you just 10 days to complete the formalities.
According to HMRC residents of inner London are they tardiest: 11% of those who were required to submit returns for the previous tax year had not done so by the filing deadlines. Taxpayers in outer London were slightly more punctual.
At the beginning of January almost 30% of all self-assessment tax returns were due to be filed. This represents approximately 3.5m returns. If the UK followed the London rates this would mean that over one million returns would not be filed before the 31 January cut-off date. One can’t help but speculate that HMRC may be ambivalent about this issue; after all for every return not filed by 31 January they receive at minimum a £100 fine from each defaulting tax payer.
If your return is still sitting in your top draw, gathering dust, this may be your last chance to complete the formalities – otherwise you will be contributing to George Osborne’s £100m windfall!