Hmrc Awaits 2.5M More Self-Assessment Tax Returns

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25928483

Some 2.5 million tax returns have yet to be submitted to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), although the final deadline is this Friday.

A total of 8.3 million self-assessment forms have been returned to the UK tax authority so far.

..

Anyone who needs to complete a self-assessment form for the tax year ending in April 2013, and ensure that have paid the appropriate income tax due, must do so by the end of Friday.

Paper returns must have been completed and returned by 31 October, with the later deadline in force for online returns.

Anyone who misses these deadlines faces an immediate £100 fine, even if there is no tax to pay.

After three months, additional daily penalties of £10 a day apply, up to a maximum of £900 if no forms have been returned. After six months, there is a further penalty of 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater. After 12 months, there is an additional 5% or £300 charge.

Wow it's like reading the wonga small print how the amount owed can balloon out of control.

[SNACR]

I would think a lot of people, in the recession, have been made redundant and unwillingly gone into self-employment in some form. They then pack it in when they find another suitable PAYE job but HMRC still keep sending a self-assessment form out.

I don't think it's accidental or an over-sight to carry on sending them out unnecessarily, I think late filing penalties are just easy money.

[little fish]

Wonder what % of them are those people who moved from being unemployed to self employed on Tax Credits?

After HMRC has ballooned the late payments it then lets some heavy handed debt collectors have a go.

[GloomMonger]

I would think a lot of people, in the recession, have been made redundant and unwillingly gone into self-employment in some form. They then pack it in when they find another suitable PAYE job but HMRC still keep sending a self-assessment form out.

I don't think it's accidental or an over-sight to carry on sending them out unnecessarily, I think late filing penalties are just easy money.

Like me, the majority of the late submissions will be those caught in the new child benefit tax change. I have always been PAYE but now have to self assess so HMRC can claim the child benefit back.

[Self Employed Youth]

Wonder what % of them are those people who moved from being unemployed to self employed on Tax Credits?

After HMRC has ballooned the late payments it then lets some heavy handed debt collectors have a go.

Oh dear, I'm one. Have registered, waiting for the activation code by post, hope I receive it in time.

Having never done it before, I didn't expect there to be a delay waiting for the code. Surely they could send this instantaneously through email.

Was speaking to a friend about it and he never bothered and just ignores the letters.

Has anyone had a fine from them before?

[blobloblob]

I've returned mine already - this year is my first year. I had to pay £350 which I did immediately but I'm still worried that they're going to come after me for making a mistake or whatever. It probably costs them £350 to process it so maybe they need to fine me to show a profit.

[Bloo Loo]

Like me, the majority of the late submissions will be those caught in the new child benefit tax change. I have always been PAYE but now have to self assess so HMRC can claim the child benefit back.

They arent late till Friday.

the same every year.

Just working on mine today..lets hope the gateway password that didnt work 3 weeks ago and has been renewed and tested 1 week ago works on Friday..

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

I'm sure I had a letter saying I might have to register for self assessment but my P60 value was nowhere near £50k so ****** 'em I've not bothered.

Same again this year I expect.

[Mikhail Liebenstein]

I would think a lot of people, in the recession, have been made redundant and unwillingly gone into self-employment in some form. They then pack it in when they find another suitable PAYE job but HMRC still keep sending a self-assessment form out.

I don't think it's accidental or an over-sight to carry on sending them out unnecessarily, I think late filing penalties are just easy money.

That said they don't always seem to like letting all people complete returns. My wife asked repeatedly to be sent a self assessment form for years and the Inland Revenue essentially refused saying she didn't need one, and that was despite her earning well over the 40% threshold. I suspect this is because she worked for a public sector employer and so they assume all is correct. Meanwhile I was asked to do one in my first job the moment I hit the 40% threshold.

I've subsequently got my wife to put in retrospective claims for previous years expenses incurred in the course of her job, which is something you can do.

If you do your tax return properly you should be able to reduce the amount of tax you pay fairly easily - I usually managed to knock at least a couple of grand off with legitimate expenses and extra pension payments.

[Snafu]

I had to do it for a few years after i shut my limited company. Bleh.

[(Blizzard)]

Personally, I think they might as well get rid of PAYE. I'm pretty certain it is riddled with mistakes and is probably extremely costly to maintain that is simply duplication for a lot of people.

Plus, I always think it good practice for people to fully appreciate exactly how much tax they are paying which you get more of a feel for that way.

****** that. I regard filling out these insanely complex, ******** forms as a tiny piece of slavery.

Figuring out how much tax should be paid is exactly the kind of thing we have computers for.

[StainlessSteelCat]

Personally, I think they might as well get rid of PAYE. I'm pretty certain it is riddled with mistakes and is probably extremely costly to maintain that is simply duplication for a lot of people.

I suspect you could say the same about most people's self assessment. I don't know why tax has to be so damn complicated. I finally hired an accountant this year and was astonished to find out what could be claimed for as it was buried in the small print on some obscure page of their website.

It seems quite difficult to escape the forms once you sign up though. It took a couple of years for them to finally stop sending them to my missus.

[(Blizzard)]

I suspect you could say the same about most people's self assessment. I don't know why tax has to be so damn complicated. I finally hired an accountant this year and was astonished to find out what could be claimed for as it was buried in the small print on some obscure page of their website.

It seems quite difficult to escape the forms once you sign up though. It took a couple of years for them to finally stop sending them to my missus.

I'm amazed that ordinary people are expected to fill out these forms, they are far more complicated than anything that most people are asked to do on a day-to-day basis.

[StainlessSteelCat]

I'm amazed that ordinary people are expected to fill out these forms, they are far more complicated than anything that most people are asked to do on a day-to-day basis.

Indeed. I remember ringing them up one year asking for advice on one of the questions around pension contributions. The guy on the other end of the phone had no idea which was the right option to choose either, and nor could he explain the difference. It was like being in one of those sitcoms where one party is trying to cover up their ignorance of a foreign language restaurant menu by reading something out with a slightly wrong inflection.

[porca misèria]

It's worth filling the tax return. My annual tax rebate nowadays is bigger than my total income was not so long ago. It can be a little complex if you have unusual tax affairs like foreign income subject to double-taxation treaties[1], or houses you've flipped to avoid CGT[2], but for most it's simple enough.

Only once in my life (tax year 2006-7) did I have to pay them something after filling the tax return. It was a princely 10p, and I expect their bank's charge to accept a debit card payment was more than that

[1] The first time I received royalties from a US publisher I had to ask them how to declare that.

[2] No actual experience - just guessing things get more complex if you're stretching the rules.

[Bruce Banner]

I do mine in April.

[Rigsby]

I wonder how many recipients of PPI payouts have declared it to HMRC.

Tax sting in the PPI refund tale

if a taxpayer’s claim for compensation is upheld, they will get a refund of premiums paid, the interest they have paid on the premium if it was added to their loan, and simple interest at 8%.

While the principle is to return the claimant to the position they would have been in if they had never taken out the policy, the 8% interest is taxable and must be declared to HMRC or included in a self assessment tax return

[davidg]

I'm still worried that they're going to come after me for making a mistake or whatever.

Unless you are a UK Walter White I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

they are far more complicated than anything that most people are asked to do on a day-to-day basis.

Splutter .!!!, don't move to France then. Everyone is on SE and the forms are nightmare complicated compared to the UK form.

[MrPin]

Unless you are a UK Walter White I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Splutter .!!!, don't move to France then. Everyone is on SE and the forms are nightmare complicated compared to the UK form.

Yes, I find written French quite offensive! I tried escargot once in Portsmouth (horribly near France), and it didn't even come with chips, or a plastic tomato filled with ketchup.

[Spot]

Like me, the majority of the late submissions will be those caught in the new child benefit tax change. I have always been PAYE but now have to self assess so HMRC can claim the child benefit back.

Same here. It wasn't as painful as I was expecting it to be but still unnecessary hassle.

They have my P60 details so why doesn't it display them online? Yeah I can guess the answer, but still, it's a bit pants.

Anyway, on the positive side i've discovered various things I can claim tax back for. This year I was a bit slack sorting out what I could claim and keeping the receipts, but for the next one I intend to (completely legally) pay far less tax than I did as a bog standard PAYE-er.

Bring it on!

[blobloblob]

Unless you are a UK Walter White I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Looks like I did fill it in wrong after all. It showed I owed them £300 odd which I paid but my new tax code arrived in the post which looks like they are trying to take the exact same amount off me that way too.

[ChumpusRex]

Personally, I think they might as well get rid of PAYE. I'm pretty certain it is riddled with mistakes and is probably extremely costly to maintain that is simply duplication for a lot of people.

Plus, I always think it good practice for people to fully appreciate exactly how much tax they are paying which you get more of a feel for that way.

To an extent, PAYE depends on how well your employer can cope.

Last year, I got an HMRC investigation which was due to my P60 being incorrect, and not including March's pay. They year before my P45 was wrong as it hadn't included my last month's salary (but HMRC didn't notice that). I then went and checked the previous years I had records for, and sure enough, every single P60/P45 was wrong.

You'd think that with modern accounting and payroll tools, this wouldn't happen, but I guess it depends on HR staff knowing how to use it.

[stormymonday_2011]

Personally, I think they might as well get rid of PAYE. I'm pretty certain it is riddled with mistakes and is probably extremely costly to maintain that is simply duplication for a lot of people.

Plus, I always think it good practice for people to fully appreciate exactly how much tax they are paying which you get more of a feel for that way.

PAYE is not really a system of assessing tax. It is a method of collection. The tax codes issued to employers are just a means of estimating an individuals allowances and Schedule E liabilities. Self assessment was primarily designed to deal with with Schedule D liabilities though it is also used to wash up other income tax liabilites at the end of the year. The reason HMRC and the government love PAYE is because it has been historically far cheaper to administer and it provides the state with money every month of the year rather than relying on the payment peaks of Jnauary and July. The PAYE system is also used to collect employers and employees Class 1 NIC which is worth over £100 billion each year and is not covered by self assessment . In 2012/13 HMRC collected about £152 billion in income tax. Over £132 billion of that money was collected under PAYE. A mere £20 billion was collected through the Self Assessment system.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/receipts/receipts-stats.pdf

[porca misèria]

Looks like I did fill it in wrong after all. It showed I owed them £300 odd which I paid but my new tax code arrived in the post which looks like they are trying to take the exact same amount off me that way too.

Doesn't matter.

Your tax code affects cash flow, but not the overall amount. Even if the code is total nonsense, it'll all be reconciled when you submit your return for the year in question.