Completing your tax return may not have been top of your priorities on Christmas Day, but that didn’t stop 2,616 taxpayers from filing their Self-Assessment returns on 25 December 2018.
For some taxpayers completing their return on Christmas Day is as traditional as spending time with family and friends or waiting for the Boxing Day sales to start. The peak filing time, according to HMRC, was between 1pm and 2pm, when more than 230 customers filed.
Angela MacDonald, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:
This year, more than 2,600 taxpayers chose to file their returns on Christmas Day.
Whether you fit it in while cooking the Christmas turkey, or after the kids have gone to bed, or after the Queen’s Speech, our online service is available for you to file your tax return at a time that suits you.
More than 11 million taxpayers are expected to complete a 2017-18 Self-Assessment tax return form by 31 January 2019.
Taxpayers who completed a Self-Assessment tax return last year but didn’t have any tax to pay, they will still need to complete a 2017-18 tax return unless HMRC has written to them to say that it is not required.
And don’t forget, the 31st January filing deadline is also the date that any arrears of self-assessment tax and NIC due for 2017-18 will need to be paid. To add salt to the wound, you may also need to make a payment on account for 2018-19.
Our advice, if you have not yet filed your return, do so as quickly as possible. In this way you can see what any tax payments at the end of the month may be before the due date.