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MISS THE NEW TAX RETURN DEADLINE AND PAY £100

Beware this year‘s potential “double-whammy”, warns South West tax expert

A potential “double whammy” of penalties and problems could await the thousands of South West taxpayers who often leave submission of their tax returns to the last moment, due to a new deadline.

According to the senior tax partner at Bishop Fleming, the accountancy firm with the widest spread of offices in the South West, anyone who has received a notice to complete a tax return now has just weeks to submit their return as a paper form by the new earlier deadline of 31st October.

“If their paper return arrives later than that date, there is an automatic £100 penalty”, said Bishop Fleming‘s Andrew Browne.

“If they opt, instead, to file electronically to take advantage of the later deadline of 31st January, they could encounter problems being created by the Inland Revenue‘s computer systems, and still end up with a penalty”, he added.

One of those problems is that the Inland Revenue‘s software may not accept some of the items that a taxpayer might need to include, like Capital Gains Tax.

“This could leave the taxpayer unable to complete an online tax return, having already missed the deadline for traditional paper submissions”, Mr Browne explained.

“An even more frustrating pitfall for anyone tempted to leave their online submission until close to the deadline is the fact that the Inland Revenue‘s online system continues to have glitches.  With the inevitable huge increase in traffic towards the deadline date, there is a danger of not getting the submission accepted and recorded in time to avoid a late-submission penalty”, said Mr Browne.

“For anyone determined to deal with their own tax return, our advice this year, especially to someone who has anything other than the simplest of tax affairs, is to submit their return on paper before the 31st October deadline.  That is the one sure way of avoiding the dangers of penalty fines”, he added.

END               25th September 2008

For further information please contact David Sturgess, Sturgess Van Damme, on 01275 349011 or email david@sturgessvandamme.co.uk 

Julian Cramp, Andrew Browne, Bishop Fleming, on 01392 448800