Still Haven’t Filed Your Tax Return? Expect a Nasty Bill from HMRC!

Tax Return 2014If you still haven’t filed your tax return for the financial year up to 5 April 2014 you can expect the penalties from HMRC to begin racking up daily — and potentially very significantly — starting from Friday 1 May.

If you missed the 31 January Tax Return deadline …

If you missed the 31 January 2015 deadline for tax returns, you already owe HMRC £100 in fines on top of any tax you owe. If you don’t owe any tax whatsoever, HMRC still require a tax return from you, plus that £100 in penalties.

If you still haven’t filed your return by 1 May …

From 1 May 2015 you can also expect a £10 daily penalty to kick in, on top of the £100 fine above, up to a maximum addition for the period of £900 (90 days) extra. But it gets even worse…

If you STILL haven’t filed your return by 30 July …

After the 90 day period beginning on May 1st, if you STILL haven’t filed your tax return you’ll receive a further £300 penalty (or 5% of the tax due; whichever is highest) plus a possible additional fine equivalent to 100% (or more) of the tax due, depending on how serious the case is.

Each of these individual penalties is in addition to the preceding ones.

So, to conclude, if by 30 July 2015 you STILL haven’t filed your latest tax return you will be in for a minimum penalty of an incredible £1300.00 and that’s in addition to the tax you owe. Also, if your case is deemed to be serious, you could be fined an additional amount equivalent to the amount of tax you owe – or even more. HMRC take no prisoners — this is serious — so you need to act fast; the sooner the better!

So what if you haven’t filed your tax return for several years …

You may think you’ll get away with it but HMRC will catch up with you for sure. Some tax returns older than a few years will drop out of their ‘normal’ system. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a good thing — far from it — it’s more a case of ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire!‘ HMRC are likely to make a hefty estimate of your tax bill (plus all the penalties which have built up) and send you a demand for the whole lot. You would then have to go through a horrendous appeals process if you believe you have received an unfair estimate.

So it is clear that there are serious consequences for those who don’t deal properly with their outstanding tax returns — even those who owe no tax at all.

The best thing to do: get professional help

If you, or anyone you know, have not done all old and/or current tax returns, time is running out before yet more penalties are added to the final bill.

The best thing to do, by far, is to contact Taxfile in Tulse Hill, South London. We are tax professionals and can sort it all out for you, stress-free. We know the tax system from front to back and deal with HMRC every single day, so know exactly how to minimise the penalties and how to get your tax affairs back into order. While we can’t perform miracles, we’ll straighten things out to your best advantage so you pay the minimum in penalties — but the simple truth is that the sooner you contact us the less those penalties will be.

Call us on 0208 761 8000, book an appointment here or send us a message here.