Don’t worry if you missed the tax deadline, you are not alone. There is set to be a record number of businesses facing the £100 fine this year.
This is not to say that we recommend you miss the deadline, in fact going forward we encourage you to get ahead of the deadline to avoid any further sleepless nights, stress or financial penalties associated with being late.
On day one you will automatically have to pay a £100 fine regardless of whether you owe money on your tax or not. From there it all depends on how long you fail to file but the longer you wait the larger the sums of money will amount to on top of the amount owed.
One Day Late – you will automatically pay the £100 fine.
Three Months Late – you will automatically pay the £100 fine, plus £10 a day up to 90 days.
Six Months Late – you will automatically pay the £100 fine, £10 a day up to 90 days plus either a £300 fine or 5% of what you owe, depending on which is higher.
12 Months Late – you will automatically pay the £100 fine, £10 a day up to 90 days, either a £300 fine or 5% of what you owe, depending on which is higher plus another £300 or another 5% of the total owed.
So all in all it pays to act quickly to avoid further penalties against you.
According to HMRC, they may accept one of the following excuses if you are late. However please note that this may not be guaranteed as HMRC will review each case separately.
If your excuse is not in line with those above, I would think again before approaching the taxman. In short they receive all sorts of excuses and below we have outlined the top 10 as said to the taxman.
Rather than waste time coming up with wild and ridiculous excuses, we recommend you put the time to good use and get on with filing your return.
We know that running a business, doing the day to day work and looking after your family is a stressful time in itself without having to meet deadlines that have a penalty attached. But as you can see from the information above the longer you leave it the more stressful the situation will become. So to avoid sleepless nights, working harder at the weekends and causing yourself more stress why not hand your accounts over to someone that can help.
Boffix only charges you £10 per month to manage your Tax Return Affairs. That’s about the third of the price of a cinema ticket or a pizza in a restaurant. For £10 we will remove the stress, keep you up to date on your obligations and help you not only meet deadlines but get yourself ahead. This year you may have paid a £100 fine, make sure you just pay £20 extra and your problem has gone away.