Did you miss the self-assessment deadline? How to act now to avoid fines and save cash

Jessica Ward | 21st February 2019

We all hate the process of filing taxes, so if you’re one of the estimated 700,000 people who missed the Jan 31 self-assessment tax deadline, act now to avoid further fines and maybe even offset a few quid.

 

The GoSimpleTax app is the only app to go directly to HMRC, can be completed in half an hour and saves the average user £335 by prompting them on what they can claim

 

“If you missed the deadline, our advice is don’t panic. There’s no real way of avoiding the £100 fine but if you file ASAP, you can avoid further financial penalties which can rack up into hundreds of pounds or five per cent of what your taxable income is – whichever is the greater,” said GoSimpleTax Technical Director Mike Parkes.

 

“But if you use GoSimpleTax, we have AI prompts that tell you what you can claim and have worked out this saves on average £335 for every person who uses us, so you could actually offset some of the fine.”

 

People who file late get a £100 fine, even if they don’t owe any tax. Those who do not file for a further 90 days get fined £10 per day. After this, they will be fined £300 or five per cent of the tax owed – whichever is the higher amount.

 

In good news for those who have yet to file, GoSimpleTax software users save an additional £355 per person by claiming expenses that many forget about when they file directly to HRMC (based on those that pay tax at the basic rate of 20 per cent).

 

They found that the most common expenses people fail to claim for correctly are fuel, phone costs, car servicing, car insurance and use of a home office.

 

People who don’t know or forget about fuel expenses miss out on claiming an average of £600 year, those that leave phone costs out of their claim lose an average of £450, and those that forget to claim for car servicing, car insurance and the use of a home office neglect to claim around £303, £216 and £208 respectively.

 

So, there’s really no excuse not to file now and save yourself a few quid on the process.

 

To find out more visit https://www.gosimpletax.com/.