Win £100,000 for filing tax on time

THE GOVERNMENT may offer a £100,000 prize to self-assessment filers for sticking to deadlines under current proposals.

The Behavioural Insight Team has suggested HM Revenue & Customs create a prize draw for those that file tax returns on time to ease congestion on IT systems in the run up to the 31 January deadline.

Similar schemes have been undertaken by some London local authorities which created a £25,000 prize draw for people who paid their council tax via direct debit. It is estimated the local authorities have managed to save about £345,000 annually due to the scheme.

The proposal has been welcomed by the CIoT with the institute claiming it suggested the idea a couple of years ago during meetings on the Carter Review which offered ideas on how to make IT more efficient at HMRC.

An HMRC spokesman said: "This is a very interesting contribution to how we maximise self assessment filing. The new penalties mean late filers could now face penalties of up to £1600 across the year and be excluded from a potential £100,000 prize draw. It pays to file on time."

Last year about 78% of self-assessment tax returns were filed online which equates to about 7m submissions.