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.