Over a million... Fail to self assess
Discussion
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjdm9mrdzxo
That's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
That's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
macron said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjdm9mrdzxo
That's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
Wild guess but it's probably same each yearThat's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
Saleen836 said:
Zad said:
They don't seem to have been advertising / promoting the deadline as much as they have in previous years.
Must be just me that has received an email almost weekly since the start of December from HMRC reminding me of the deadline 
Gecko1978 said:
macron said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjdm9mrdzxo
That's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
Wild guess but it's probably same each yearThat's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
Very roughly it's 1 in 10 self-assessments that are late.
There are approx 12 million self assessments.
Being a PAYE pleb I didn't think much about the SA return but spotted a post on reddit about the higher income child benefit charge. Got me thinking. Ive never had to do one before.
I dug out all my payslip and p60 for the year and sat and worked it all out. Salary alone and with a chunky pension contribution I presumed I'd be ok, but forgot about several bonus payments and pay rises that happened in the year which did take me over the threshold a bit.
So I worked out I have about £400 to pay back. Eventually got through to HMRC. They just said sign up even though you've missed the sign up deadline, do the assessment, pay the monies. You'll probably get a fine and whatnot they said but just appeal if and when and explain yourself.
Well I signed up but still waiting for my unique tax reference number or something. Apparently it could take anywhere between 2 hours and 3 weeks! To generate a number!
I dug out all my payslip and p60 for the year and sat and worked it all out. Salary alone and with a chunky pension contribution I presumed I'd be ok, but forgot about several bonus payments and pay rises that happened in the year which did take me over the threshold a bit.
So I worked out I have about £400 to pay back. Eventually got through to HMRC. They just said sign up even though you've missed the sign up deadline, do the assessment, pay the monies. You'll probably get a fine and whatnot they said but just appeal if and when and explain yourself.
Well I signed up but still waiting for my unique tax reference number or something. Apparently it could take anywhere between 2 hours and 3 weeks! To generate a number!
Welcome to dealing with HMRC. You’re lucky to get through in 40 minutes these days, and it’s pot luck whether you get someone who knows what they’re talking about so they can help you.
Now imagine that a form of `SA will need to soon be done quarterly (2026) and a lot of those will be done by people without a clue what they’re doing as the income range is from £50k and up although there’s talk of lower.
So you ask those people to either pay an accountant to do it, and these will likely be clients that are low margin to an accountant then you’re looking at a massive future bottleneck and a lot of incorrect returns if they even get filed at all
Now imagine that a form of `SA will need to soon be done quarterly (2026) and a lot of those will be done by people without a clue what they’re doing as the income range is from £50k and up although there’s talk of lower.
So you ask those people to either pay an accountant to do it, and these will likely be clients that are low margin to an accountant then you’re looking at a massive future bottleneck and a lot of incorrect returns if they even get filed at all
Otispunkmeyer said:
Being a PAYE pleb I didn't think much about the SA return but spotted a post on reddit about the higher income child benefit charge. Got me thinking. Ive never had to do one before.
I dug out all my payslip and p60 for the year and sat and worked it all out. Salary alone and with a chunky pension contribution I presumed I'd be ok, but forgot about several bonus payments and pay rises that happened in the year which did take me over the threshold a bit.
So I worked out I have about £400 to pay back. Eventually got through to HMRC. They just said sign up even though you've missed the sign up deadline, do the assessment, pay the monies. You'll probably get a fine and whatnot they said but just appeal if and when and explain yourself.
Well I signed up but still waiting for my unique tax reference number or something. Apparently it could take anywhere between 2 hours and 3 weeks! To generate a number!
Anyone with gross income over £100K needs to do self-assessment. Since pay has been going up in pound terms but that number's been fixed at £100K for yonks, more and more people are being told to do them.I dug out all my payslip and p60 for the year and sat and worked it all out. Salary alone and with a chunky pension contribution I presumed I'd be ok, but forgot about several bonus payments and pay rises that happened in the year which did take me over the threshold a bit.
So I worked out I have about £400 to pay back. Eventually got through to HMRC. They just said sign up even though you've missed the sign up deadline, do the assessment, pay the monies. You'll probably get a fine and whatnot they said but just appeal if and when and explain yourself.
Well I signed up but still waiting for my unique tax reference number or something. Apparently it could take anywhere between 2 hours and 3 weeks! To generate a number!
You'll get UTR code and then you should sign up for a government gateway ID to get you access to your online tax account.
Oddly, once you're signed up, it's actually a pretty decent service.
NuckyThompson said:
Welcome to dealing with HMRC. You’re lucky to get through in 40 minutes these days, and it’s pot luck whether you get someone who knows what they’re talking about so they can help you.
Now imagine that a form of `SA will need to soon be done quarterly (2026) and a lot of those will be done by people without a clue what they’re doing as the income range is from £50k and up although there’s talk of lower.
So you ask those people to either pay an accountant to do it, and these will likely be clients that are low margin to an accountant then you’re looking at a massive future bottleneck and a lot of incorrect returns if they even get filed at all
That's for self-employed and for landlords.Now imagine that a form of `SA will need to soon be done quarterly (2026) and a lot of those will be done by people without a clue what they’re doing as the income range is from £50k and up although there’s talk of lower.
So you ask those people to either pay an accountant to do it, and these will likely be clients that are low margin to an accountant then you’re looking at a massive future bottleneck and a lot of incorrect returns if they even get filed at all
There's a clip level - below £30K it won't be needed, so it's really about businesses.
OK, so let's be realistic here.
A million people fail to Self Assess and get fined £100, which they may or may not pay.
How the hell is HMRC going to chase a million people with anything resembling effectiveness? Most of the time HMRC can barely find their way out of a paper bag.
The tax laws are written by a small group of "clever people". Implementation of those laws is conducted by a very large computer and a limited number of administrative staff who are not highly paid and have very little understanding of the way the system actually works.
And people wonder why their PAYE tax code keeps changing. The big computer in the sky is constantly trying to keep up with things it can't possibly keep up with. But the Treasury/HMRC love anything that gets their fingers in your wallet - then it's up to you to try to claim it back...
A million people fail to Self Assess and get fined £100, which they may or may not pay.
How the hell is HMRC going to chase a million people with anything resembling effectiveness? Most of the time HMRC can barely find their way out of a paper bag.
The tax laws are written by a small group of "clever people". Implementation of those laws is conducted by a very large computer and a limited number of administrative staff who are not highly paid and have very little understanding of the way the system actually works.
And people wonder why their PAYE tax code keeps changing. The big computer in the sky is constantly trying to keep up with things it can't possibly keep up with. But the Treasury/HMRC love anything that gets their fingers in your wallet - then it's up to you to try to claim it back...
pghstochaj said:
Saleen836 said:
Zad said:
They don't seem to have been advertising / promoting the deadline as much as they have in previous years.
Must be just me that has received an email almost weekly since the start of December from HMRC reminding me of the deadline 
No, even if I gain mere pennies in interest, you are not getting it until the week before the deadline, and no amount of "oh go on" emails, texts, letters or sky writing will change that 
A lot more people may have been dragged into SA, because interest rates on savings have improved and not tax is deducted at source like it was before the zero interest rate era?
I think the church will have knowledge of most savings accounts, so will know that lots of people are needing to submit a return.
I think the church will have knowledge of most savings accounts, so will know that lots of people are needing to submit a return.
Panamax said:
OK, so let's be realistic here.
A million people fail to Self Assess and get fined £100, which they may or may not pay.
How the hell is HMRC going to chase a million people
It's a million NI numbers that will have PAYE adjustments. A normal laptop could process it in about 5 minutes.A million people fail to Self Assess and get fined £100, which they may or may not pay.
How the hell is HMRC going to chase a million people
When you do self assessment, if you owe you can optionally pay back up to £3K via tax code adjustments or just stump up directly. These folk will have the same choice.
OutInTheShed said:
A lot more people may have been dragged into SA, because interest rates on savings have improved and not tax is deducted at source like it was before the zero interest rate era?
I think the church will have knowledge of most savings accounts, so will know that lots of people are needing to submit a return.
The what now?I think the church will have knowledge of most savings accounts, so will know that lots of people are needing to submit a return.
macron said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjdm9mrdzxo
That's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
1.1 million isn't bad going when HMRC themselves said 3.4 million hadn't filed a week ago - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deadline-approa...That's a lot of £100 fines. People fearful of the bill? Not understanding they have to? With at least a £100 fine per person it is a great way to fill Labour's imaginary black hole!
Appreciate banking was a mess last week, but that's not the same as filling in the form...
CraigyMc said:
Otispunkmeyer said:
Being a PAYE pleb I didn't think much about the SA return but spotted a post on reddit about the higher income child benefit charge. Got me thinking. Ive never had to do one before.
I dug out all my payslip and p60 for the year and sat and worked it all out. Salary alone and with a chunky pension contribution I presumed I'd be ok, but forgot about several bonus payments and pay rises that happened in the year which did take me over the threshold a bit.
So I worked out I have about £400 to pay back. Eventually got through to HMRC. They just said sign up even though you've missed the sign up deadline, do the assessment, pay the monies. You'll probably get a fine and whatnot they said but just appeal if and when and explain yourself.
Well I signed up but still waiting for my unique tax reference number or something. Apparently it could take anywhere between 2 hours and 3 weeks! To generate a number!
Anyone with gross income over £100K needs to do self-assessment. Since pay has been going up in pound terms but that number's been fixed at £100K for yonks, more and more people are being told to do them.I dug out all my payslip and p60 for the year and sat and worked it all out. Salary alone and with a chunky pension contribution I presumed I'd be ok, but forgot about several bonus payments and pay rises that happened in the year which did take me over the threshold a bit.
So I worked out I have about £400 to pay back. Eventually got through to HMRC. They just said sign up even though you've missed the sign up deadline, do the assessment, pay the monies. You'll probably get a fine and whatnot they said but just appeal if and when and explain yourself.
Well I signed up but still waiting for my unique tax reference number or something. Apparently it could take anywhere between 2 hours and 3 weeks! To generate a number!
You'll get UTR code and then you should sign up for a government gateway ID to get you access to your online tax account.
Oddly, once you're signed up, it's actually a pretty decent service.
Don't think I'll be troubling £100k any time soon. Despite best efforts
Panamax said:
And people wonder why their PAYE tax code keeps changing. The big computer in the sky is constantly trying to keep up with things it can't possibly keep up with. But the Treasury/HMRC love anything that gets their fingers in your wallet - then it's up to you to try to claim it back...
Yup thisSA in the final
Week (PAYE) over £140k
The computer spat out that I owed £6k and had 3 days to pay.
I note the part above about sub 3k and it can be paid in the following taxes on PAYE, but to click fingers for an unknown £6k is not fun !!
pghstochaj said:
Not just you, I got text messages, a letter and regular emails. It was really annoying.
I don't. They even charged me interest on a late payment they were totally silent about. The first I knew was a physical letter through my door. If they'd emailed me or texted me I'd just have paid it.I've looked for settings and I seem to have mail and text enabled.
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