Taxman relaxes online filing deadline
Self assessment tax payers will not face penalties if the taxman receives them on 1 February, despite missing the deadline
With the 31 January civil service strike expected to have taken place as
Accountancy Age went to press, HM
Revenue & Customs appeared to have relaxed its guidelines over tax
filing.
Under current rules, tax returns can be made the day after the deadline and
will not receive a penalty. However the enquiry window on the return normally
extends from 12 to 15 months.
Richard Mannion,
Smith &
Williamson national tax director, said that HMRC would not extend the
enquiry window at all if a reasonable effort had been made to get to a tax
office. ‘In practice, HMRC has usually treated 1 February in this way, but you
shouldn’t really treat it as an extra day,’ added Mannion.
HMRC said it had received 2.6 million online self assessment filings by 29
January, a 40% increase on the same time last year.