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Thousands set to file taxes on Christmas Day

Thousands set to file tax return on Christmas Day

There are plenty of ways to get out of peeling the sprouts or swapping presents with the in-laws on Christmas Day, but who knew that filing taxes was one of them?

Last year an un-festive 2,044 people submitted their tax returns on Christmas Day, 5,402 managed to hold out till Boxing Day, some 24,546 went wild filing their returns on New Year’s Eve — hopefully sober — and a further 11,467 did so on New Year’s Day itself.*

These figures, from the HMRC, are supported by figures from GoSimpleTax.com who said that a significant number of people used their tax return software over the Christmas period last year.**

A recent survey by GoSimpleTax.com, who have just launched a unique cloud and smartphone app that provides the easiest and quickest way for thousands of self-employed to process their tax returns, revealed that people have a true love-hate relationship with their tax returns, but eight out of ten claim to be on the ball when it comes to organising them.

In the same survey, despite all those questioned saying it’s not worth paying a fine for being late, 20% of those admitted they had been overdue once and a lackadaisical 10% confessed to being late up to four times.

When asked if they were organised when it came to self-assessment, 100% of those working in churches said they had everything under control while three quarters of those questioned from the construction industry said theirs was “all over the place”.

Other sectors that claimed to organise their tax returns well were education, media and finance, while those in IT and insurance were a little less organised.

Amanda Swales from Go SimpleTax said: “There will be lots of reasons people file their tax returns on Christmas Day: some people may want to avoid the family chaos, but others may be of a different faith and Christmas Day is just like any other to them.

“It’s a good thing though because it means they are filing on time; nobody should be spending money on penalties for missing the 31st January deadline when submitting a return can be quick and easy. We are aware people can struggle with self-assessments but it’s always best to face them head on, as they need to be filed and paid at some point: they don’t just go away.

“That’s why we’ve created intelligent software that will even discover deductible items you never knew existed. We offer direct help over extended hours so you need never have to listen to HMRC’s dreadful hold music again.“

The deadline for sending 2015-2016 tax returns and paying tax owed is Tuesday 31st January 2017.

To find out more about Go SimpleTax visit www.gosimpletax.com

Making Tax Digital

In December 2015 the government launched the Making Tax Digital Roadmap, which sets out the bold vision for how this will be achieved, transforming HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) into one of the most digitally-advanced tax administrations in the world by 2020.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Zara Lewis .