Late filing penalties issued earlier than expected

HMRC has begun issuing late filing penalties for 2017-18 self-assessment income tax returns submitted after the filing deadline of 31 January 2019. This is earlier than expected given that in February HMRC announced these notices would be delayed until the end of April due to Brexit-related pressures.

Jon Stride co-chair of the ATT’s technical steering group said: ‘The ATT is pleased that HMRC has not delayed the exercise to the end of April which was originally a possibility. However it will take HMRC until 12 April 2019 to issue all the penalty letters. This gives taxpayers a little over two weeks to submit their return before the daily penalty regime commences.’

He urged anyone who has yet to file their 2017-18 return to do so. They will not be able to avoid the £100 penalty unless they have a reasonable excuse...