HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that more than 10.2 million customers filed their 2020 to 2021 tax returns by the 31st January 2022 deadline.
More than 630,000 filed on deadline day and the peak hour for filing was 16:00 to 16:59 when 52,475 completed their Self Assessment. There were 20,947 who completed their tax return between 23:00 and 23:59.
More than 12.2 million were expected to file a Self Assessment tax return. The remaining 2.3 million expected to file by 31st January 2022 now have until 28th February 2022 to submit their late 2020 to 2021 tax return and avoid a late filing penalty.
For any Self Assessment filers who are yet to pay their tax bill or set up a payment plan, interest will be applied to outstanding balances from 1st February 2022. They have until 1st April 2032 to pay or set up a time to pay arrangement, to avoid a late payment penalty.
Those not able to file their tax return should pay an estimated amount as soon as possible, which will minimise any interest. The Self-employed can use the calculator on GOV.UK to help estimate their tax bill.
Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:
I’d like to thank the millions of customers and agents who sent us their tax return and paid in time for this week’s deadline.
We’re waiving penalties this year, to give those who missed the deadline an extra month. And customers can set up a monthly payment plan online if they’re worried about paying their tax bill. Search ‘Self Assessment’ on GOV.UK to find out more.
The Time to Pay service allows those who are unable to pay their bill in full, to spread their tax payments into monthly instalments. Those with up to £30,000 of tax debt can do this online once they have filed their return.
If owing more than £30,000, or needing longer to pay, call the Self Assessment Payment Helpline on 0300 200 3822.
A list of the payment methods that can be used to pay their Self Assessment tax bill is available on GOV.UK.
The 2020 to 2021 tax return covers earnings and payments during the pandemic. Taxpayers will need to declare if they received any grants or payments from the COVID-19 support schemes up to 5th April 2021 as these are taxable, including:
- Self-Employment Income Support Scheme
- Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- other COVID-19 grants and support payments such as self-isolation payments, local authority grants and those for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme
The £500 one-off payment for working households receiving tax credits should not be reported in Self Assessment.
It is important to check and make any changes to the tax return to make sure any SEISS or other COVID-19 support payments have been reported correctly.
HMRC urges everyone to be alert if they are contacted out of the blue by someone asking for money or personal information. Taxpayers should always type in the full online address http://www.gov.uk/hmrc to get the correct link for filing their Self Assessment return online securely and free of charge. HMRC sees high numbers of fraudsters emailing, calling or texting people claiming to be from the department. If in doubt, HMRC advises not to reply directly to anything suspicious, but to contact them straight away and to search GOV.UK fot ‘HMRC scams’.
Find out more about Self Assessment
Self Assessment facts
Self Assessment 2022 facts summary:
- 12.2 million Self Assessment returns due
- 10,290,965 returns received by 31 January. This includes expected returns, unsolicited returns and late registrations
- 9,892,965 expected returns received by 31 January (80.98% of returns expected)
- 398,000 unsolicited returns/late registrations (3.87%)
- 2,322,869 customers missed the deadline (19.02%)
- 9,838,336 returns were filed online (95.6% of total filed)
- 452,629 paper tax returns were filed (4.4% of total filed)
Unsolicited returns/late registrations are an estimate based on returns received by early January and previous filing behaviour.
Timelines
Self Assessment timeline:
- 31st January 2022 – Self Assessment deadline (filing and payment)
- 1st February 2022 – interest accrues on any outstanding tax bills
- 28th February 2022 – last date to file any late online tax returns to avoid a late filing penalty
- 1st April 2022 – last date to pay any outstanding tax or make a Time to Pay arrangement, to avoid a late payment penalty
- 1st April 2022 – last date to set up a self-serve Time to Pay arrangement online
There is no change to the filing or payment deadline and other obligations are not affected. This means that:
- interest will be charged on late payment. The late payment interest rate is 2.75%
- a return received online in February will be treated as a return received late, with a valid reasonable excuse for the lateness. This means that:
- there will be an extended enquiry window
- for returns filed after 28th February 2022 the other late filing penalties (daily penalties from 3 months, 6 and 12 month penalties) will operate as usual;
- a 5% late payment penalty will be charged if tax remains outstanding, and a payment plan has not been set up, by midnight on 1st April 2022. Further late payment penalties will be charged at the usual 6 and 12 month points (August 2022 and February 2023 respectively) on tax outstanding where a payment plan has not been set up.
- HMRC will not charge late filing penalties for SA700s and SA970s received in February. These returns can only be filed on paper
- for SA800s and SA900s HMRC will not charge a late filing penalty if taxpayers file online by the end of February 2022. The deadline for filing SA800s and SA900s on paper was 31st October 2021. Taxpayers who file late on paper will be charged a late filing penalty. They can appeal against this penalty if they have a reasonable excuse for filing their paper return late
PAYadvice.UK 2/2/2022
