HMRC Self Assessment Tax Return Deadline: 5 Things You Should Know

You were self-employed, you received £2,500 or more in untaxed income, your savings or investment income was £10,000 or more before tax or your income or your partner’s was over £50,000 and one of you claimed child benefit. Check the HMRC website for further stipulations.

To do this you will need your Unique Taxpayer Reference, which you will find on the registration letter HMRC sent you. You will then need to create a Government Gateway account and activate the service using the code you’ll be sent in the post - this may take a few days so get the ball rolling.

Reasonable excuses which will be taken into consideration include the death of a partner or close relative, evidence you’ve experienced an unexpected stay in hospital, a serious or life-threatening illness, your computer or software failed just before you were preparing your online tax return and postal delays you couldn’t have predicted.

The penalties for late returns are an initial £100 fine, with additional penalties of £10 a day, up to a maximum of £900.

Further penalties of £300 are imposed after six months and a year if the bill is still unpaid. You do the math...

Unreasonable excuses have included yacht fires, wasps and children’s scribble.

Unsurprisingly, all of these excuses were rejected.