January Madness!

No, I'm not talking about the slow recovery from imbibing too much alcohol over Christmas and New Year, or even the sadomasochistic post-Christmas diet and exercise regimen, of course, I am talking about the final run-in to the 31 January! It's that time of year again for almost everyone working in tax (I'm sure even some VAT people get drafted in to help out at this time of year).

In order to try and make this month seem a little more bearable, I thought I'd share a little bit of festive humour, here are some of the reasons taxpayers have given to HMRC for filing their taxes late in recent years:

1. My pet goldfish died (self-employed builder)
2. I had a run-in with a cow (Midlands farmer)
3. After seeing a volcanic eruption on the news, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else (London woman)
4. My wife won’t give me my mail (self-employed trader)
5. My husband told me the deadline was 31 March, and I believed him (Leicester hairdresser)
6. I’ve been far too busy touring the country with my one-man play (Coventry writer)
7. My bad back means I can’t go upstairs. That’s where my tax return is (a working taxi driver)
8. I’ve been cruising around the world in my yacht and only picking up post when I’m on dry land (South East man)
9. Our business doesn’t really do anything (Kent financial services firm)
10. I’ve been too busy submitting my clients’ tax returns (London accountant)

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/revenue-reveals-top-10-oddest-excuses-for-late-tax-returns

Whilst I know some of these are getting old now, they're still quite amusing.

However, the matter of late filing is still very serious for the taxpayer (as well as being a post-Christmas headache for us practitioners). Of course, I am talking about HMRC's penalty regime:

• £100 – applied immediately the return is late;
• £10 per day – charged once the return is 3 months late for a maximum of 90 days;
• the higher of £300 or 5% of the tax due – applied if the form is 6 months late;
• a further £300 or 5% of the tax due (whichever is higher) – applied if the form is 12 months late; and
• you’ll also be charged interest on late payments of tax.

If they are going to be late, it's always worth considering if they do have a reasonable excuse. A reasonable excuse is something that stopped you meeting a tax obligation that you took reasonable care to meet, for example:

• your partner or another close relative died shortly before the tax return or payment deadline
• you had an unexpected stay in hospital that prevented you from dealing with your tax affairs
• you had a serious or life-threatening illness
• your computer or software failed just before or while you were preparing your online return
• service issues with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) online services
• a fire, flood or theft prevented you from completing your tax return
• postal delays that you couldn’t have predicted
• delays related to a disability you have

Source: https://www.gov.uk/tax-appeals/reasonable-excuses

Have a great 2019 folks!