Last week’s email was a little deep, so this week I will keep it (relatively) light-hearted.
And what could be more than the personal tax return deadline on 31 January?!?.
With only 2 days left, there are still lots of returns still to be filed across the country. HMRC have said that they’re expecting over 12 million this year…and usually around 10% are filed on 31 January itself!!
However, to prove the taxman is fun, HMRC usually release their funniest list of excuses for missing that deadline. And, a couple of years ago, they rounded up their favourite excuses from the last ten years.
So, we asked Billie to film a video on them.
What happens if I’m late?
The penalties for filing a tax return late are:
- an initial £100 fixed penalty, which applies even if there is no tax to pay, or if the tax due is paid on time
- after 3 months, additional daily penalties of £10 per day, up to a maximum of £900
- after 6 months, a further penalty of 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater
- after 12 months, another 5% or £300 charge, whichever is greater
There are also additional penalties for paying late of 5% of the tax unpaid at 30 days, 6 months and 12 months.
However, you can ask HMRC to set up a “Time to Pay” arrangement to spread the payment of tax bills into instalments.
But, here’s Billie with some fun excuses!
If you haven’t got time to watch, the excuses were:
- My mother-in-law is a witch and put a curse on me
- I’m too short to reach the post box
- I was just too busy – my first maid left, my second maid stole from me, and my third maid was slow to learn
- My hamster ate my post
- After seeing a volcanic eruption on the news, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else
- I’ve been cruising around the world in my yacht and only picking up post when I’m on dry land
- My boiler had broken and my fingers were too cold to type
- I’ve been travelling the world, trying to escape from a foreign intelligence agency
- My ex-wife left the tax return upstairs and I can’t go and get it because I suffer from vertigo.
- My wife has been seeing aliens and won’t let me into the house. ET was unable to fill in the form himself.
And, of course, we can’t ignore the excuse given by one person that they couldn’t do their tax return because their accountant had run off…….with his wife!
As you can imagine, none of the excuses were accepted by HMRC!
If you have any questions, please email su*****@*********************co.uk or give us a ring on 0151 380 8099.
Cheers
Jon