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Businesses facing tax penalty fines through late submissions

Businesses who failed to meet the 31 January deadline for paper tax returns are being advised to contact their accountant to mitigate further financial difficulties.

According to Peter Cronin of Clarkes Chartered Accountants in Gateshead, businesses who are considering submitting their forms late will face an automatic £100 penalty, plus a daily penalty of £10 per day. This could run up to a maximum of £900.

However, as Mr Cronin explains, there is a possibility that fines can be mitigated.

He said: “Visiting a chartered accountant to get your return filed on-line will avoid any daily penalties that have clocked up so far and moreover the daily penalties for online tax return submission do not start running until 1 May 2012.”

Peter adds that chartered accountancy firms will already be authorised as agents to file returns online so this also avoids the delay in waiting for an authorisation code to be issued while the penalty carries on increasing

He says: “At 5 April the daily penalties would already have risen to £650. The fees an ICAEW chartered accountant would charge for the average tax return will be less than the penalties already incurred.

“Therefore, now is the time to get some professional advice to bring your affairs up to date. Getting peace of mind and saving money is a good combination!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .