CashNews.co
HM Revenue and Customs has issued a warning to taxpayers, urging them to perform a “quick check” to avoid having to fork out £100 of their hard-earned money. Millions of people will need to submit a self-assessment tax return in the new year, and it’s not just those who are self-employed.
The deadline for these crucial submissions is set for January 31, 2025, with a £100 fine looming for those who fail to meet the cut-off date – regardless of whether they owe any tax or not.
For those who have yet to register for self-assessment, the clock is ticking, with the deadline falling on Saturday, October 5. HMRC is now encouraging people to check whether they’ll need to file a return or not.
In a recent update on X, formerly known as Twitter, HMRC said: “Do you need to do a Self Assessment tax return? You can quickly check using our free online tool.”
According to Gov.uk guidance, you must send a tax return if in the last year, April 6 2023 to April 5, 2024, you were self-employed and earned more than £1,000, were a partner in a business, had a total taxable income of more than £150,000, or had to pay Capital Gains Tax when you sold or “disposed of” something that increased in value. You’ll also need to file a return if you had to pay the High Income Child Benefit Charge, and you may need to send one if you have any untaxed income such as money from renting out a property, tips and/or commission, income from savings, investments, and dividends, or foreign income.
HMRC has urged customers to file their return early, stating it “provides peace of mind and also allows time to consider opportunities to spread the cost of their tax bill, claim refunds earlier and avoid costly errors caused by rushing.”
If you miss the October 5 deadline to register, there is a possibility you may eventually be charged a penalty for failing to notify HMRC that you owe tax, according to the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. This is called a “failure to notify” penalty and is calculated as a percentage of the tax that is owed.
You can usually avoid a failure to notify penalty if you can both file your 2023/24 tax return online and pay any income tax owed for the 2023/24 tax year by January 31. However, if you do not register for self-assessment, you’re more likely to forget to file the return altogether, meaning you may receive to a £100 fine, and potentially other penalties on top.