Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Self-employed people are being urged to submit their HMRC Self-Assessment tax returns well before the Christmas period in 2022, after over 30,000 individuals and small businesses filing over the three main festive days this year.
According to HMRC, they were inundated by self-assessment tax returns on Christmas Eve: over £20,000 returns were made. On Christmas Day, nearly £3,000 returns were filed, and Boxing Day saw 8,500 tax returns filed.
Furthermore, nearly 11 million taxpayers filed their 2020 tax returns by midnight on 31st January 2021, but conversely, nearly 2 million missed the deadline, which incurs increasing charges, sometimes daily and capped after a period of 90 days, with possible further charges for all partners of the business.
The takeaway here is to seek advice and get organised well before the festive period when it comes to filing your taxes. The pandemic has affected many businesses who either haven’t had the time or the appropriate earnings to make a tax return, and for one reason or another have left the paperwork until the very last minute. It would be advisable, however, to finalise all tax returns well before Christmas in order to spend more time with your loved ones over the holiday period.
Check out our guide to Self Assessment returns here.