If you then miss the effective deadline of 28 February, you will be charged an automatic £100 penalty. Around about three quarters of a million people receive this each year.
You also need to make sure that you’ve paid your tax to HMRC by 1 April – after this point, you will be charged 5% of the tax due. (Up to then you may find yourself paying a small amount of interest – about 7.5p per day per £1,000 due.)
The longer you leave the filing and payment, the more the penalties start to rack up.
Our advice to late filers
If you ever find yourself in this situation, this is our advice to late filers:
-
- Taxes often feel overwhelming but the sooner you start, the better.
- Try your hardest to get your tax return filed and the payments made as soon as you can, to keep the penalties as low as possible
- If you don’t have all information to hand, include provisional numbers and file an amendment later
- If you have a good reason for the delay, you may be able to appeal against the penalty
If you’re struggling to pay your tax bill
If you’re struggling to pay your tax bill, don’t ignore it - contact HMRC as soon as you can, to see if you can set up a payment plan to spread the cost of your latest self-assessment bill. Last year 123,000 people took advantage of the ‘Time to Pay’ scheme. Be aware HMRC will normally expect your tax returns to be up to date before setting you up and the following will normally apply:-
-
- you owe £30,000 or less
- you do not have any other payment plans or debts with HMRC
- it’s less than 60 days after the payment deadline.
Take control of your taxes to ensure you can file on time next year
If you missed this year’s deadline, make sure you don't make the same mistake next year. untied can help you take control of your taxes throughout the year and shows how much you owe so you’ll never have to miss a tax return deadline again.
Now watch our Tax Tea Break video on HMRC's Time to Pay scheme, which enables you to pay your tax bill in installments: