Early late penalty??

Early late penalty??

Didn't find your answer?

Interestingly had a notice through today dated 24/1/12 for one of my self assessment Clients telling me that due to the 2011 Tax Return not being submitted on time my Client has a £100 penalty!

Sorry I thought the deadline was tomorrow!!

In fact I submitted the thing this morning online so WTF are they doing now???

Replies (18)

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By IslingtonAccountant
30th Jan 2012 10:54

Possible reason

Have they filed one on paper after 31st October?

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By paulhelliker
30th Jan 2012 11:19

Nope I filed online this morning!

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By Savingstacksof tax
30th Jan 2012 11:29

I had similar...

...I suspect it's a blip and has probably already been cancelled.  Not worth losing any sleep over it.

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By paulhelliker
30th Jan 2012 11:51

Just found out my Clients wife sent a signed copy of the one I sent them!

 

Which bit of the letter saying 'Please sign and return to me' was hard to understand??

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Replying to Smokoe Joe:
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By ACDWebb
30th Jan 2012 13:57

Ouch

paulhelliker wrote:

Just found out my Clients wife sent a signed copy of the one I sent them!

Which bit of the letter saying 'Please sign and return to me' was hard to understand??

That's an expensive mistake! £100 for not reading your letter.
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Euan's picture
By Euan MacLennan
30th Jan 2012 14:35

Was the online tax return accepted?

If you filed an original return (as opposed to an amendment) online successfully, HMRC could not have recorded the receipt of the original "paper" return by that time.  So, appeal against the penalty on the grounds that the paper return came second and should have been rejected.

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Replying to ShirleyM:
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By bernard michael
30th Jan 2012 14:44

Surely not if they have reacted to the paper return by sending  penalty notice and the online return is dated today they will not believe it was the other way round.

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By ACDWebb
30th Jan 2012 15:11

It is a good point though

and probably worth a punt. It should get rejected as already filed when you try to submit on-line. If it wasn't I should have thought that was indicative of the on-line filing trumping the wifes paper filing error., or will HMRC say that the paper return was dated / received first just not registered.

Is "the client is a numpty" a reasonable excuse though?

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By valentino rossi
30th Jan 2012 16:15

the client is a numpty

Surely worth a try.Depends on how much you like them.

Presumably the penalty was generated the moment the return was logged as received, even if it hasn't been processed yet.

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By Chris Wise
30th Jan 2012 16:48

If it was a copy surely it has a copy signature not an original and is therefore invalid

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Replying to lionofludesch:
Quack
By Constantly Confused
30th Jan 2012 16:55

Unless

Chris Wise wrote:

If it was a copy surely it has a copy signature not an original and is therefore invalid

Unless the client copied it THEN signed it.  Regardless, oh dear...  And won't it be £100 + £10 per day, or does that only apply from 1 Feb?

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By SamanthaGore
30th Jan 2012 17:22

my understanding is the £10

my understanding is the £10 per day only kicks in when the return is 90 days late, so really the £100 fine still stands for now but with no chance of it being cancelled if no tax to pay, see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm

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Replying to the_fishmonger:
Quack
By Constantly Confused
31st Jan 2012 09:03

!

SamanthaGore wrote:

my understanding is the £10 per day only kicks in when the return is 90 days late, so really the £100 fine still stands for now but with no chance of it being cancelled if no tax to pay, see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm

My stars, I stand corrected!

Example

Mrs A's tax return is due on 31 January 2012 but HMRC don't receive it until 5 August 2012.

It is over six months late so she will have to pay all of the following:

£100 fixed penalty£900 penalty - this is £10 each day from 1 May to 29 July, when the maximum 90 day penalty is reached.£300 or 5 per cent of the tax due - whichever is the higher

You live and learn!

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
03rd Feb 2012 15:16

Another similar episode

Same day, same penalty for anony scot (plus a few other £400 penalties for clients whose PAYE returns had been filed online).

As I understand it, the 2-day SA filing moratorium was introduced to reduce the volume of automatic penalties that might have been triggered by late filings (600k projected for 31 Jan, 400k actually filed on the day, so potentially there could have been up to 200k penalty notices (potential revenue: £20m +?)to deal with/cancel.

Sounds to me, however, that the SA computers were programmed by someone from the "shoot first, ask questions later" school.

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By arnold28
06th Feb 2012 11:33

Me too

I posted this on 16 Jan, well before the (original) deadline...

 

We have just received a notice from HMRC advising that a £100 penalty is payable because our client's SA return for the Y/E 5 April 2011 was not submitted on time.

The letter advises us to submit the return now to avoid further penalties.

HMRC just a bit too eager????

https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/jumping-gun

 

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By tunstall
06th Feb 2012 14:16

Have one much better- client received late filing penalty (with £100 payable) on the first of December 2010 for the 2011 return.The return was accepted by HMIT ,(with internet keytime receipt) in October 2010.Thought I had done Rip Van Winkle and missed a yea!!.Still no explanation from HMIT

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By vinylnobbynobbs
07th Feb 2012 08:22

We received a penalty notice dated 17 January 2012 for a return filed online and acknowledged as received on the same day.  Are HMR&C printing these returns out, then logging them as received on paper then issuing penalty notices?

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By Chris Wise
07th Feb 2012 09:11

Online Portal Delay

One of my colleagues noticed that returns were taking 4/5 days to show as recieved on rthe online service. wonder if that will create a problem with penalties?

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