It’s that dreaded time again. The ghoulish presence of HMRC is hovering just around the corner, waiting somewhat impatiently for your tax return.
The self-assessment tax return cut-off date is fast approaching. 30 September to be exact, and the sensible among you will be way ahead of the game, realising that the end of the month is, in fact, a deadline, not a suggested date to start gathering up your receipts and invoices.
After all, you don’t want to end up like pocket-sized Romanian twins the Cheeky Girls who allegedly got into a spot of bother last year over an unpaid VAT bill. One hopes Lembit Opik was able to offer a helping hand to his other half, and her doppelganger.
This month’s deadline should not be confused with the
31 January filing and payment deadline however. 30 September is the submission deadline for those that want HMRC to calculate the tax they owe and tell them what they’ll need to pay by the following January.
If the deadline is missed, HMRC can’t guarantee to calculate the exact amount of tax you’ll need to pay and you’ll therefore be liable for late payment interest and fines if you’re caught unaware with an unexpectedly high tax bill.
The HMRC ghoul isn’t going anywhere so if you haven’t snapped up a whiz kid accountant to deal with all your paperwork for you, how about saving yourself some time and letting that ghoul calculate your tax bill? Go on, get your return in by 30 September.
