Welcome to our new ‘5-minute read’ series. The aim of these communications is to provide you with a quick update to assist you in keeping on top of upcoming deadlines and/or changes. In our first update, we take a look at the filing deadline/penalties for the 2018/19 Self Assessment Tax Return Form.
31 January 2020 – Late Filing Penalties
- 31 January 2020 is the filing deadline for submission of your online 2018/19 self assessment tax return form
- If the 2018/19 tax return form is not submitted before 31 January 2020, a late filing penalty of £100 will be imposed
- If the tax return form is not submitted within 90 days (1 May) of 31/01/20, then daily penalties of £10 will be imposed
- If the tax return form is not submitted within 6 months (1 August) an additional penalty of £300 or 5% of the tax owing (whichever is greater) will be imposed
- Additional penalties will continue to be incurred until the form is submitted to HMRC.
Exceptions
- The filing deadline for submission of ‘paper’ 2018/19 self assessment tax return forms is 31 October 2019
- The filing deadline for submission of ‘paper’ self assessment tax return forms for registered pension schemes (and you are a Trustee) and non-resident companies is 31 January 2020
- If the notice to file a 2018/19 self assessment tax return form is received on or after 1 November 2019, then you have 3 months to submit the form to HMRC before late filing penalties are imposed. Albeit the payment criteria remains as below.
31 January 2020 – Payment of Liability
- 31 January 2020 is the deadline for payment of your 2018/19 liability
- 31 January 2020 is the deadline for payment of the first payment on account towards your 2019/20 liability (50% of prior year liability)
- Interest will accrue on a daily basis if the liability is not paid on time, until it has been paid
- A 5% surcharge will be incurred if the 2018/19 liability is not paid within 30 days of 31 January 2020
- An additional 5% surcharge will incur if the liability has not been paid within 6 months of 31 January 2020
- Additional penalties will continue to be incurred until the liability is paid.
You can make payment of any tax liabilities direct to HMRC by clicking here.
Exceptions
- If you cannot pay the liability in full before 31 January 2020, you should contact HMRC and request a ‘payment by instalment’ arrangement which is at HMRC’s discretion
- The payment arrangement should be requested before 31 January 2020
- It may be possible, dependent on the type of income that you receive for the 2018/19 liability to be collected via a tax coding restriction, provided the underpayment is less than £3,000. The tax return form should be submitted to HMRC before 31 December 2019 to opt for this.
Information
It is important to let your Advisor have the information to complete the 2018/19 self assessment tax return form as soon as possible after 6 April 2019. By doing this, your 2018/19 liability can be calculated before any payment deadlines and any queries regarding this can be dealt with. In addition it may be possible to do some tax planning to reduce your 2018/19 and alter this year’s liabilities based on the information available.
If you have any queries please contact your usual Advisor or a member of the team below and let us have any information to complete the form before 31 October 2019, unless you have already done so.
