HMRC quizzed as taxpayer receives £360 fine but 'wasn't aware' they had to file return
The taxpayer intends to appeal the penalty and claims to have been unaware about the requirement to file.
A taxpayer was concerned to discover they had landed a £360 fine from HMRC.
They contacted the tax authority over X to say: "Woke up to a £360 fine for late self assessment. I wasn’t aware that I had to file a non return as I wasn’t self employed for that period.
"It turns out the form I filled out to say I’m no longer self employed never came through. How do I appeal to get this sorted."
The customer support team responded to apologise for the issue and to explain the process.
They said: "You can let us know if you don't need a tax return using one of the ways you'll find at this link: https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns/no-longer-need-to-send-a-tax-return.
"Once you’ve told us, we’ll check your details. If needed, then update our records and cancel the penalties."
Guidance on the gov.uk website states that a person has to inform HMRC if they believe they no longer need to file a tax return.
If the department agrees with this, they will send the taxpayer a letter to confirm this.
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For those who are no longer self-employed, the guidance states: "You need to tell HMRC that you’ve stopped being self-employed.
"If you’ve already told HMRC that your self-employment has ended, HMRC may still ask you to send tax returns for future years.
"If you’ve checked and you don’t need to send a tax return, you’ll need tell HMRC."
If a person misses the deadline to file their tax return, there is a late filing penalty of £100 for up to three months.
After this, the penalty will increase. A taxpayer is also charged interest on late payments.
There are certain 'reasonable excuses' for not paying a penalty, such as if you have a serious illness or because of postal delays.
More information about the resonable excuses are available here.
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