Taking Stock: Many happy returns over Christmas
Christmas is a time for ... taxes, apparently
EVERYONE at the TS desk had a marvellous Christmas, thank you, but it is safe to say that based on figures from HM Revenue & Customs, a lot of people did not.
That is the only explanation TS can come up with for the staggering news that 1,548 self-assessment tax returns – believed to be a record high – were filed online on Christmas Day. Surely even getting roped into the washing-up isn’t that bad.
According to the taxman, that figure is up a huge 40% on Christmas Day 2011, when 1,100 people felt they would rather do their taxes than watch The Great Escape with their in-laws.
The deadline for the country’s 10.5m self-assessment taxpayers is 31 January, something which has prompted the taxman to engage in a somewhat off-piste advertising campaign imploring self-assessed taxpayers to achieve “inner peace” by completing their returns and coughing up.
All at the TS desk are incredibly grateful that Christmas was a tax-free affair.