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2016/17 Personal Tax Return Filing Deadline

Paystream News

David McManus

Thursday 25th Jan, 2018

Frequent HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) advertisements appear throughout January each year reminding limited company and other individuals in the Self- Assessment tax system of the impending tax filing deadline.

If you have not already done so, you must file your 2016/17 Personal Tax Return and pay any tax due by the 31 January 2018.

Failure to file your Return online, on time, will lead to an automatic £100 penalty. Last year 840,000 missed the deadline (7% of the total required to do so) and left themselves open to the penalty.

The tax laws do however provide a way out of the penalty if you have a 'reasonable excuse'. Here are what are regarded as being 'reasonable':

  • Your partner or another close relative died shortly before the deadline
  • You had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your tax affairs
  • You had a serious or life-threatening illness
  • Your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online Return
  • Service issues with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online services
  • A fire, flood or theft prevented you from completing your Tax Return
  • Postal delays that you couldn't have predicted
  • Delays related to a disability you have

You must send your return or payment as soon as possible after your reasonable excuse is resolved.
Here's what HMRC won't accept as an excuse:

  • You relied on someone else to send your return and they didn't
  • You found the HMRC online system too difficult to use
  • You didn’t get a reminder from HMRC
  • You made a mistake on your tax return

If you haven't filed your Return yet there may still be time - contact the PayStream Tax Team immediately on 0161 929 6000 (option 3) or email personaltax@paystream.co.uk for help and we'll see what we can do.

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