It seems that many of you took notice of our advice and on going reminders to submit your tax return online and by the 31st January deadline as HMRC have reported the biggest digital Self Assessment event ever this year.
Here are some of the interesting statistics around it all:-
- 10.24 million tax returns were received by midnight on 31 January.
- A record 85.5% were sent online.
- The busiest days for filing were 30 and 31 January, when HMRC received 980,000 returns.
- The busiest hour was between 1pm and 2pm on 30 January, when almost 50,000 returns were received – 830 per minute.
- The busiest hour on deadline day was between 11 am and midday, when almost 32,000 returns were received – 530 per minute.
- Around 4.3 million customers (42%) left it until January to file their returns, which HMRC issued in April 2014.
- 8.76 million returns were filed online (85.5%) compared to 1.48 million filed on paper (14.5%)
HMRC’s Director General of Personal Tax, Ruth Owen, said:
"This is another record-breaking year for Self Assessment, with 210,000 more people filing their returns on time than last year.
“We're grateful to the overwhelming majority of people who sent their returns on time. If you’re one of the minority who missed the deadline, you still need to get your tax return to us as soon as possible, to avoid further penalties and interest mounting up.”
Peter Way-Rider comments:
“The majority of people use the online filing for their tax return and despite last minute submissions manage to get their return in on time. The ever increasing numbers and in fact record numbers reported by HMRC this year prove that on line filing is popular. There are, however, still 890,000 returns still outstanding so if you are one of these customers then please submit your tax return as soon as possible to avoid further penalties”
HMRC report that missing the tax return deadline results in an automatic £100 late-filing penalty. There are further late-filing penalties after 3, 6 and 12 months. People with a genuine reason for not filing should contact HMRC to ensure they do not incur more penalties.
Many customers took advantage of the electronic message system which HMRC offers to some businesses instead of receiving paper communication. In fact HMRC report by the end of January, more than a million Self Assessment-only customers (self-employed, with no other source of income, no employees and not VAT-registered) opted to do this.
If you are eligible, you can sign up by logging into your Self Assessment online account and following the prompts.
Source HM Revenue & Customs Press Office