Deadline day

Paper chase

31^st October is the date on everyone’s mind. This is, of course, the final day on which paper tax returns for the 2018/19 tax year can be submitted. Fewer and fewer people are now completing their tax returns on paper but not everyone has embraced digital yet.

If you fall into this camp and have not yet submitted your return then you need to start acting now. Procrastination, however tempting it may feel, could turn out to be expensive. We have come across many tax payers over the years who have left everything until the last minute only to find that an essential piece of information is missing.

Don’t panic

Should all of your good intentions somehow fail to translate into effective action, and the deadline looms, then passes you by it is very important that you don’t panic. The first thing to do is: nothing! Do not submit a paper return after the deadline or you will get a fine.

A much better option is to change tack and choose to submit online. This will give you another three months to find those final elusive details of your taxable income. Of course we would never recommend that you make use of the full three months. This only risks repeating the missed filing deadline.

Here to help

Visit our website to find further information on tax return deadlines. Alternatively you could decide that you have better things to do with your time than spend many months worrying about preparing your own tax return in time to avoid a penalty and let us do it for you.

We can’t promise that 31^st October 2019 will pass without worry or incident but we can promise to make sure you are well looked after in your dealings with HMRC. Contact us today if you would like any help with submitting your tax return.