Self-assessment – just one week left

The LITRG is urging people to complete their 2018/19 self-assessment tax return online before the 31st January 2020, or risk a fine from HMRC.

LITRG is also highlighting that people who face the loan charge/or who are in the process of ‘settling’ their use of loan arrangements, are allowed to defer filing their returns until September 2020.

The advice comes as HMRC expect 11.7 million tax returns by the 31st January. HMRC estimate that around 54% of taxpayers have already filed their returns with more than 5.6 million of those completed online (89% of the total returns filed).

Victoria Todd, Head of LITRG Team, said, “There is time to avoid a penalty if you are one of the millions of people yet to complete and submit a tax return online for 2018/19. If you have not yet registered for online filing this process can take a few weeks so you will need to act now. HMRC urge anyone who is expecting to find it difficult to pay their tax to get in touch with them as soon as possible.

“You may have started your tax return but are stuck with the tax treatment of a particular expense. Or you may be unsure if parts are correct or even if you still need to file a tax return. There is guidance available from organisations such as LITRG4 and also from HMRC. It is better to look for help now rather than miss the deadline and get charged an automatic late filing penalty of £100.”

Todd added, “You should double-check that you have correctly submitted your return online once you have fully completed it. You may complete your tax return and print off a draft return and tax calculation but not realise that you also need to submit the return as the last step of the online process. You should get a submission receipt from HMRC once the process is completed if you have used HMRC’s online filing system correctly.”

People need to complete a tax return if they:

• or their partner received Child Benefit and either of them had an annual income of more than £50,000
• received more than £2,500 in other untaxed income, for example: From tips or commission, money from renting out a property, income from savings, investments & dividends, or from foreign income
• are self-employed sole traders and earned more than a £1,000
• are a partner in a business partnership
• are employees claiming expenses in excess of £2,500
• have an annual income over £100,000

If you completed a self-assessment tax return last year but didn’t have any tax to pay, you still need to complete a 2018/19 tax return unless HMRC has written to you to say it is not required.

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