No relaxation of the 31 January SA filing deadline

Despite calls to relax the self-assessment filing deadline, HMRC have stated penalty notices will be issued as normal to anyone who files late. However, they will be allowing more time to appeal any penalty notices.

HMRC are encouraging customers to complete their returns by 31 January 2021, even where they are unable to pay in full. This is due to filing your return being key to crystallising your Self-Assessment and to enable you to get support to pay your tax, should you need it.

However, HMRC have stated that no-one will have to pay a penalty if they cannot file of time due to the impact of COVID-19 and they will accept pandemic-related personal or business disruption as a reasonable excuse. Likewise, if the return has a pandemic-related delay on part of the agent, this will be a valid excuse.

HMRC have also stated that more time will be given to appeal any penalties by 3 months and the situation will be kept under review.

However we would encourage all our clients to get their information into us as soon as possible due to the busy period ahead and running through the appeals process will take longer with no guarantee of success, with possible additional costs. After the last few months, we could all do with a bit less uncertainty!