Missed the tax return deadline? Top 10 tips to file now, and with care
If the taxman’s figures from 2024 and 2023 are anything to go by, about one million people missed Friday’s self-assessment tax deadline, writes chartered accountant Anthony Mellor, founder of accountancy firm Mellor & Co.
Hector will therefore be along this week to urge late-comer contractors -- often the unrepresented or those in between accountants -- to submit their returns pronto.
The £100 penalty isn’t for getting your contractor tax return wrong
While an automatic penalty of £100 will be winging its way to you if you’re among the 1 million self-assessors who failed to file by midnight on January 31st 2025, HMRC does not penalise inaccurate, incomplete or otherwise wrong returns with this £100 late fee.
But interest is levied by HMRC (starting at a pretty swingeing 7.25%) on late returns, and it ratchets up quickly. This interest accrues the longer that you DON’T get your SA100 into the Revenue.
My best-practice workflow when filing a (late) self-assessment tax return…
Here are my top 10 tips for limited company directors in IT and other sectors who missed the 31st deadline; still need to file, but who don’t have an accountant to help.
N.B. – Before we get into it, with all of the following tips to get your tardy tax return in now, the word 'print' does NOT mean using a physical printer! It means ‘print to pdf.’ In the print menu, Windows has a “Microsoft Print to PDF” option, and if you’re using a Mac, select the ‘PDF’ button.
Tip 1:
As you work through every page of SA100, just before you hit ‘proceed,’ print it to a folder in pdf.
Should you be with an accountant, your accountant has hopefully sent you only those pages of the SA100 which are relevant to your circumstances.
If you’re unrepresented, you’ve got to sift through every page, and manually disregard or complete, those pages which are irrelevant or relevant. The following tips are really for the unrepresented.
Tip 2:
At the front of every filename offered, enter “01” or “02” or “03,” etc, to keep the pages in the right order. Otherwise, they are random, hard to manage and tricky to follow or find -- not ideal if you want to get your tardy return submitted before racking up further interest from HMRC.
Tip 3:
Some web browsers include the suggested file name, but some do not which is a nuisance.
In the case of the latter (file name not included), use the name of the HMRC page.
E.g.
'01-About me 1'
'02-About me 2,' and so on.
Tip 4:
If (when) you later edit a page, reprint it over the first version.
This is where using the HMRC page headings pays off, because the existing print is easy to find.
Tip 5:
Never forget to include the ‘Detailed Tax Calculation’ (it’s not in the return itself, but is above the on-screen ‘Next’ button, and pops up after the summary tax calculation).
It’s arguably the most important page for you to understand and manage your tax affairs. It draws everything together.
Tip 6:
But while the above section draws everything together, it then fails to deduct your ‘payment on account’ paid during the preceding year from the amounts it says you should pay!
It helps to have looked up the Payment on Account figure before you do all this work, to avoid scary-looking figures on the screen!
The ideal place to look them up is on your HMRC Gateway, so you can see the Revenue has recorded the amount you think it should have.
Tip 7:
As mentioned at the top, HMRC late filing penalties are NOT for filing an inaccurate, incomplete or otherwise wrong return.
Such penalties are merely for failure to file.
So, if necessary, now look for and tick the ‘estimates that will change’ box and submit.
For precision, the box you’re looking for is entitled:
“If this tax return contains provisional figures, put ‘X’ in the box.”
Later (and of course only if necessary) you can re-submit a corrected version.
Tip 8:
The most common reason I’ve witnessed over the years for contractors’ failure to file on time, and thereby incurring HMRC penalties, is being unable to find all the required information in time (in which case see Tip 7, above).
Tip 9:
My penultimate tip is the first of the top two reasons why not just ticking ‘estimates will change’ is important but why completing your tardy tax return in the orderly, trackable way, recommended in Tips 1-3, is important too.
It’s simple. When challenged by HMRC about what you entered, you have conclusive evidence and do not need to rely on your memory or the "Summary" at the end of the tax return form.
Tip 10:
You need another reason why this belt and braces approach to submitting your already late tax return is best?!
Well, for your next tax return (2024-25), you now have a template to follow. And in my experience with contractor limited companies, it’s very often exactly the same fields on the SA100 that require input, only with slightly different numbers to enter.
Final thought
If you’re a director of a limited company sat staring at a £100 late penalty, or expect to be shortly, don’t delay and don’t bother calling HMRC either. The time you spend waiting in a telephone call queue to say you intend to file as soon as possible is time you could spend submitting the actual return!
That said, you may wish to speak to HMRC if you’ve been penalised for being late with your self-assessment tax return but think you’ve got a “reasonable excuse.”