Have you filed your Self-Assessment (SA) for the 2021/22 tax year? If not, act now as the deadline is 31st January 2023 for electronic returns unless you’ve been issued with a notice to file after 1st November 2022 since your deadline will become 3 months after the date of notice mentioned on the HMRC letter. If you wished to send a paper return to HMRC, the deadline to do this was by 31st October 2022.

If your accountants have failed to compile the required information, it is worth switching sooner rather than later since your new accountants will need to apply for authorization to act on your behalf as well as potentially request a UTR number if this is the first instance in which you’re being required to file a SA. The combination of these can take as much as a month which leaves taxpayers too close to the deadline.

HMRC waived initial late-filing penalties for the 2020/21 tax year due to Covid. It gave taxpayers an additional month to get their SA returns on time (giving them up to 28 February to avoid penalties and interest). However, this level of leniency is not expected to be repeated for filing the 2021/22 tax return given that there’ve already been 9 months given by HMRC from the end of the tax year.

A £100 late filing penalty can apply if your SA filing is late with further penalties applying for late payment of the tax as well. Individuals must also be wary of any balancing adjustments or payments on account which must be paid. Late payment of both balancing adjustments and payment on accounts can result in interest being charged but penalties will only apply to late payments on balancing adjustments.

Are you concerned of being unaware of what the tax treatment might be for your income streams and your responsibilities as a taxpayer? Why note reach out to Cheylesmore Accountants for robust advice, we will walk you through all your accounting responsibilities but more importantly seamlessly execute these on your behalf to put you at ease over your tax affairs. That’s one less tax and financial matter which you need to worry about.