News: March 2011

Penalties for late filing of your income tax returns

New late filing and late payment penalties will apply from 6 April 2011 (in relation to tax years ending after 5 April 2010) for personal, trust and partnership returns.

The existing rule that the late filing penalty is the lower of £100 and the balance due will be replaced. That is hardly a surprise, but the good news is that the level of the basic £100 penalty remains.

The penalties for late filing will include:

• £100 penalty immediately after the due date for filing (whether or not the tax has been paid)
• Daily penalties of £10 per day for returns that are more than 3 months late, running for a maximum of 90 days
• Penalties of 5% of tax due for the return period (or £300 if greater) for prolonged failures, which arise after 6 months and again after 12 months
• Higher penalty of 70% of tax due where a person fails to file for over 12 months and has deliberately withheld information necessary for HMRC to assess the tax; this is 100% if deliberate with concealment)

Rest assured, we will do all we can to file your tax returns on time, but the consequences of that not happening are about to get worse.