If you miss a tax deadline, understate your tax assessment, or overclaim to tax relief, you may be liable to pay HMRC penalties. The type of penalty you pay will depend on the issue at hand and how severe it is. It’s in your best interest to get your books in order and ensure all the information you submit is correct. The best way to do this is to employ the services of an accountant.

At Tax Refunds R Us, we specialise in helping people who are self-employed, specifically within the construction industry, with their tax. We can help you if you have been issued with HMRC late filing penalties or any other tax return penalties. Whilst we can step in should this issue occur, it’s always useful to understand how HMRC penalties work so you can avoid them in the future and understand what it means if you are issued with one.

What is a HMRC tax penalty?

If HMRC thinks you are responsible for a tax compliance failure, they may issue you with a penalty. Tax compliance failures include:

• Filing a tax return late
• Not filing a tax return when you need to
• Paying your owed tax late
• Not notifying HMRC of your tax chargeability
• Not submitting the correct documentation or information to HMRC

Not every tax compliance failure will incur a penalty, and in most cases, if a penalty is issued, it’s possible to get it overturned provided you understand the system. This is where we can help. If you have been issued with self-assessment penalties, get in touch with our team to learn more about how we can help you get your fine overturned and even get you some money back!

What do tax penalties relate to?

You can incur tax penalties if you are liable to pay tax of any kind, though the most common are tax return late filing penalties. Other types of penalties include:

• PAYE and National Insurance late/incorrect penalties
• Late VAT penalties
• Corporation tax penalties

At Tax Refunds R Us, we mainly help self-employed and sole traders who have incurred late self-assessment penalties, but we offer a range of accounting services to help you get completely on top of your books and avoid other types of penalties.

How much are HMRC tax penalties?

The amount of money you are fined depends on the issue at hand and how severe it is. In terms of self-assessment late filing penalties, the figures are currently as follows:

• £100 – if you file your self-assessment tax return one day late, you will be liable to pay £100. You might not owe any tax, but if you fail to submit your tax return before the deadline anyway, you may still be fined £100.
• £900 – if your tax return is up to 12 weeks late, HMRC could charge you up to £10 a day.
• 5% of your total tax bill – should you submit your tax return up to six months late, you may be issued with a £300 fine or a fine that is equivalent to 5% of your total owed tax bill. Which one you pay will depend on which value is higher.
• 100% of your total tax bill – if your tax return is filed a year late, you will need to pay another £300 or 5% of your total tax bill, meaning you could pay up to £600 or 10% of your overall tax bill. In exceptional cases, HMRC may fine you the whole value of your owed tax bill.

Avoiding HMRC late payment penalties

The easiest way to avoid getting a fine from HMRC is to ensure you send your self-assessment on time. The fiscal tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April, so if you worked self-employed during this time, you will need to make sure you submit your documents before 31 January. If you don’t, you may incur a penalty.

You may be able to get your penalty waived if you have a reasonable excuse for your documentation being late. Some justifiable excused include:

• Theft of goods
• Damage to your property by a floor or fire
• HMRC online service errors/issues
• Illness
• Bereavement

If HMRC declines your excuse, your penalty will stand, but we can help you. Get in touch with our team to discuss your tax return needs. Even if you already have penalties, we might be able to help you – we won’t turn you away. We’ll go through what we need from you and track down any lost paperwork, ensuring we submit the correct information to HMRC first time.

We are experts at tax and getting penalties overturned. We have years of experience in the field. Our no-win-no-fee service means that if, for whatever reason, we can’t get you a tax refund or your penalties overturned, we won’t charge you. Generally speaking, we can get you a tax return or penalty appeal win within seven working days.

We can also speak to you about how you can manage your books better moving forwards through services like bookkeeping. To find out more about HMRC tax penalties, how we can get your penalties overturned, and how we can help you avoid any future fines, please contact us.