Mon, 23 Jan 2012

Troops fighting in Afghanistan will receive fines for late filing self-assessment

HMRC says members of the armed forces serving in Afghanistan will receive fines if they submit their self-assessment tax returns after the January 31st deadline – but insists they will be written off under reasonable excuse provisions.

Soldiers fighting abroad will receive fine notifications because HMRC cannot stop penalties being issued to certain groups of late filers.

It also has no way of knowing whether someone is in the armed forces or who will file on time and who will miss the deadline.

But an HMRC spokesman strenuously denied the fines would be enforced, as long as the Revenue was contacted and the situation explained.

A spokesman said: “We completely understand that people can have legitimate reasons for being late with their returns. It is virtually certain that a serving member of the armed forces fighting abroad would not have to pay a penalty, as long as they appeal.”

And Alastair Kendrick, tax director at MacIntyre Hudson, said: “An employer gives you your end of year details around June or July time so you can’t file or prepare your self-assessment return really till after that period so if you’ve got people who have been out in action since July for example then I would have thought they had a very good case to say they had not been around to do it as a ‘reasonable excuse’.”

The HMRC guidance on reasonable excuse can be found here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/online/excuse-missed-deadline.htm

See also:

• Revenue says it has improved its post handling and contact centres
• HMRC call centre strike goes ahead on SA deadline day – Revenue assures people there is a two-day extension
• Polish immigrant’s benefit claim exposes HMRC's own 'dirty data'