Late UK Tax Return Fines And Penalties Help

Fines for late tax returns

If you miss the deadline for filing your UK tax return online or paying your bill, you could face penalties. You will be fined if you miss HMRC’s tax return deadlines.

If you miss the 31st January deadline to file your tax return HMRC will currently charge you £100. If your return is still outstanding three months later, you’ll also be charged £10 per day- up to a 90 day maximum of £900. After six months, you face an extra charge of £300 or 5% of the tax due. If a full year goes past you will be fined another £300 or 5% of the tax due.

You may be asked to pay up to 100% of the tax due instead of this, but you will still have to pay all the other charges.

Additional late payment penalties

Things get worse if you also fail to pay your tax bill on time. The deadline for paying tax is 31 January following the end of the tax year. If you miss this deadline you’ll be charged interest from the date the payment was due. The interest rate varies – you can check the current rate payable on HMRC’s website.

If any of the tax bill remains unpaid by 28 February following the deadline, you’ll be charged 5% of unpaid tax. An additional 5% is imposed on any of the tax bill which is unpaid by 31 July.

So it is important to to get your late tax return filed with HMRC as soon as you can after the deadline in order to avoid increased penalties.