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Higher Penalties for Late Returns

Newsletter issue - May 2011.

Your personal self-assessment tax return for the tax year to 5 April 2011 must be submitted to HMRC by 31 January 2012, or by 31 October 2011 if it is submitted in paper form. These deadlines also apply to your separate partnership tax return where you are a member of a partnership.

For tax returns for earlier years you would receive a penalty of £100 if you submitted it later than those dates, but that penalty would be reduced to nil if you were due a tax repayment, or all the tax due was paid by 31 January. There was however no reduction for penalties relating to late partnership returns. For 2010/11 tax returns and later years, the penalties for submitting the return late will not be reduced even if all the tax due has been paid on time.

As well as the initial £100 penalty, there are additional penalties!

If you are...

• More than three months late submitting your return the penalty is charged on a daily basis at £10 per day, up to a maximum of £900.
• Over 6 months late with your tax return you will be hit with an additional penalty calculated as the higher of: £300 and 5% of the tax due.
• Over 12 months late, the same penalty is imposed again.

When a partnership tax return is submitted late those penalties apply to each partner in the partnership.

If you are also late in paying the correct amount of tax you will receive a penalty for paying the tax late. These penalties are calculated as 5% of the outstanding tax due at the following intervals: 30 days late, 6 months late, and 12 months late.

In view of these high penalties it is essential that we work with you to get your tax bill calculated in good time, so you can make the correct payments due and get your return done on time. Please send us the information to complete your accounts and tax return as soon as possible!