Record numbers fail to meet tax deadline
Inland Revenue officials confirmed this week 900,000 taxpayers failed to submit 1999/2000 self-assessment tax returns before the 31 January deadline ? the highest figure on record.
The figure will produce almost a £100m cash windfall for the Treasury. The all-time high follows the 800,000 tax payers missing the deadline last year.
The consistently high statistic suggests a hard core of tax payers continually file late returns. But the Revenue said the number of repeat offenders was low, adding: ‘But a percentage were repeats.’
Official figures showed 8.9 million returns had been registered as Accountancy Age went to press.
The high figure comes despite the Revenue moving the deadline to 7.30am on 2 February.
The Revenue said it was happy with the percentage of tax payers who had filed on time, but added: ‘We will continue to advertise deadlines and encourage self-assessment tax payers to file on time, but the figures are remarkably similar to last year.’
Links
E&Y partner: SA system near collapse
Revenue hopes plan will boost e-filing