Hi All
I have not seen any billboards/adverts around from HMRC regarding the 31/01/16 deadline for self assessment tax returns. (However, I have heard a few HMRC ADs over the radio regarding this deadline). Is this another measure the tax office are taking to cut their advertising costs? I also read that the tax office may now cancel the £100 penalties on frivolous grounds which is why they are not really advertising this deadline as much.
We've also noticed a sharp reductions in our clients forwarding their records on time compared to the previous year.
Have any other accounting practices experienced the same? Have you also noticed the reduction in advertising by HMRC?
Your thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Replies (3)
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IMO the £100 is a joke and
IMO the £100 is a joke and certainly not relative to inflation
Instead HMRC introduced the £10 per day penalty as of 1st May ( or 3 months late )- this is far more lucrative for them
There are slight comparisons with the 0% credit card deals , where they do NOT want you to pay the balance off within the 12 months deal and then hit you with 25% apr thereafter.
I have not noticed any adverts myself, like the ones on TV yesteryear . And yes I expect the same old rogues to dump their bank statements on me 30th Jan.
Worse
Definitely been worse this year with the slackers, and I've noticed no HMRC advertising apart from on radio. (I guess Lin Homer's golden goodbye has to come from somewhere!)
We just let them drift now, barring an email reminder to cover ourselves. They're now really just a category of client that treats the filing deadline as being end Feb or 30th April, which ironically makes January less stressful that it could otherwise be.
Mind you, we've missed a trick in previous years of not charging for doing the penalty appeals - given that they invariably succeed. I think this year it'll be £50 for appealing a £100 fine. Seems fair.
I only have about 25 Returns left to complete, some of which can be done once accounts are finalised, so I'm not really in panic mode. This is in sharp contrast to previous years (in previous companies) where it was 12 hour, 7 day working in January.
Come 16:30 on 29 January I'm done. I've given the stragglers more than enough opportunity, and so have no intention of putting myself out.