What Are Self-Assessment Penalties?

  

You may have heard there are penalties if you’re late sending and paying your online tax return to HMRC!

Remember you should send and pay your online tax return by the 31st of January.

If you don’t, you’ll usually be charged a penalty. You can check if you need to send a tax return by using HMRC’s self-assessment checker on gov.uk

If you do need to send one and we receive your return late, you’ll get a penalty of £100 if your tax return is up to 3 months late.

These penalties won’t be reduced even if you have nothing to pay on your return.

If it’s more than 3 months late, you’ll be charged an additional £10 a day for up to 90 days!

After this you’ll be charged further penalties until HMRC receives your tax return and you’ve paid your tax bill.

You’ll also be charged interest on late payments.

If you don’t have to send a tax return you can ask to be removed from self-assessment.

If you don’t tell HMRC you’ve stopped being self-employed or are no longer part of self-assessment, you may also be charged a penalty.

The easiest way to avoid penalties is to send your return and pay any tax due by the 31st of January.